Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 31 October 2019 (week 44)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 43, 2019

Data up to week 43 (ending 27 October 2019) shows:

• during week 43, all influenza activity indicators are below baseline
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is below baseline for hospitalisations and for ICU and HDU influenza admissions
• respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is now circulating in the <5 year olds in England

The full weekly flu report this summary is based on, accompanying spreadsheet of data and slideset are available from weekly national flu reports: 2019 to 2020 season.

2. Surveillance scheme summaries

2.1 Community

Data from outbreak surveillance shows:

• there have been 38 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 34 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 2 tested positive for influenza A(unknown subtype)
• 2 outbreaks were reported from schools where one tested positive for influenza A(unknown subtype)
• 2 outbreaks were reported from hospitals

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) was below baseline threshold level
• the overall weekly ILI GP consultation rate was 6.2 per 100,000 in week 43 compared to 5.5 per 100,000 registered population in the previous week in participating GP practices for England
• in the devolved administrations, ILI rates were below baseline threshold levels for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was below baseline impact levels, with a rate of 0.61 per 100,000 in week 43 compared to 0.21 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (20 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was below baseline impact levels, with a rate of 0.02 per 100,000 in week 43 compared to 0.02 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (134 out of 143 NHS Trusts)
• there were no influenza admissions reported from the 6 severe respiratory failure centres in the UK

2.4 All-cause mortality

Data from all-cause mortality surveillance shows:

• no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality by week of death was seen overall and by age group in England in week 43
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 43, however excess was noted for Scotland in week 41 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, 11 samples tested positive for influenza (1 A(H1N1)pdm09, 4 A(H3) and 4 A(unknown subtype) ) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 43
• in secondary care influenza percent positivity was 2.8%, below baseline threshold levels
• a total of 57 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (1 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 25 influenza A(H3), 30 influenza A(not subtyped) and 1 influenza B).

2.6 Vaccination

Data from the GP patient, healthcare worker and primary school-age children flu vaccine uptake programmes shows:

• up to week 43 2019, in 92.3% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 18.6% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 21.9% in pregnant women and 53.8% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 43 2019, in 95.2% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 0.7% in 2 year olds and 3 year olds respectively

3. International situation

• in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at inter-seasonal levels in most countries; however continued to increase across the countries of the Arabian Peninsula
• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity was low in most countries, with influenza B virus detections continuing to be reported by Chile.
• worldwide, seasonal influenza A viruses continued to account for the majority of detections, although the proportion of influenza B viruses increased in recent weeks.

4. Further information

See ‘seasonal influenza: guidance, data and analysis’ for further information on the symptoms, diagnosis, management, surveillance and epidemiology of seasonal influenza (flu).

See ‘sources of UK flu data: influenza surveillance in the UK’ for further information and guidance on the surveillance schemes we use to track seasonal influenza.