Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 16 January 2020 (week 3)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 2, 2020

Data up to week 2 (ending 12 January 2020) shows:

• during week 2, influenza activity continues but shows signs of having peaked in some indicators
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is now at low intensity levels for hospitalisations and ICU/HDU influenza admissions
• the Department of Health & Social Care has issued an alert on the prescription of antiviral medicines by GPs

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 69 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 55 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 14 tested positive for influenza A
• 11 outbreaks were reported from hospitals where 6 tested positive for influenza A
• the 3 remaining outbreaks were reported from the Other settings category with no test results available

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the overall weekly influenza-like illness (ILI) rate decreased but continued to be above baseline threshold levels and was at 14.7 per 100,000 registered population in participating GP practices for England, a decrease from 16.6 per 100,000 in the previous week
• in the devolved administrations, ILI rates were at baseline levels in Scotland and Northern Ireland; and moderate levels in Wales for week 02

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was at low impact levels, with a rate of 2.43 per 100,000 in week 2 compared to 4.33 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (20 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was at low impact levels, with a rate of 0.21 per 100,000 in week 2 compared to 0.36 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (136 out of 143 NHS Trusts)
• there was one new influenza confirmed admission (1 influenza A(not subtyped)) 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 2
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 2 2020 and no excess was noted for Scotland in week 52 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, 41 samples tested positive for influenza (6 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 29 influenza A(H3), 3 influenza A(not subtyped), 2 influenza B and one co-infection influenza A(H3) and B) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 2, with an overall positivity of 24.4%
• a total of 347 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (64 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 121 influenza A(H3), 149 influenza A(not subtyped) and 13 influenza B) with an overall positivity of 12.4% and above baseline threshold levels

2.6 Vaccination

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

• up to week 2 2020, in 94.3% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 41.8% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 41.9% in pregnant women and 71.1% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 2 2020, in 93.4% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 39.2% in 2 year olds and 39.4% in 3 year olds

Provisional data from the second monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake by frontline healthcare workers show 61.5% were vaccinated by 30 November 2019, compared to 61.0% vaccinated in the previous season by 30 November 2018.

Provisional data from the second monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake for children of school years reception to year 6 shows 46.4% in school year reception age, 45.8% in school year 1 age, 45.0% in school year 2 age, 43.7% in school year 3 age, 43.2% in school year 4 age, 41.3% in school year 5 and 39.7% in school year 6 age were vaccinated by 30 November 2019.

3. International situation

• in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity and respiratory illness indicators continued to increase in most countries
• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity returned to interseasonal levels
• worldwide, seasonal influenza A(H3N2) viruses accounted for the majority of detections.

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.