The number of reported instances of flu spiked in the first week of the year by almost two-thirds, the latest figures show.
There were 3,802 cases in the week to January 4th with 956 hospital admissions and seven deaths, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
This is by far the highest number of reported flu cases reported in the last seven years.
In the previous week, which included Christmas Day, there were 2,315 cases of flu.
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Instances of the flu are being driven by outbreaks in nursing homes and other residential settings. There were 60 outbreaks in nursing homes in the week up to January 4th, the last for which figures are available.
There have been 11,043 cases of recorded flu in the State since the start of the flu season on September 30th, but the vast majority of cases have come in the last four weeks.
According to the HSE, there were 678 people in hospital with the flu on Wednesday. This figure has come down slightly in recent days, but there remains a high level of flu circulating in the community.
There were 65 adults in intensive care due to influenza, as well as five children.
On Thursday morning there were 430 patients on trolleys in the State with 65 in University Hospital Limerick alone.
Flu season tends to peak in early January. This year’s surge has been blamed on the particularly infectious AH1 variant which has not been around since the 2018/2019 flu season.
Health Service Executive (HSE) chief clinical officer Colm Henry said the uptake of the flu vaccine this year has been “disappointing” as the system has grappled with a surge of the virus.
The number of adults over the age of 65 getting the flu vaccine decreased from 75 per cent to 72.5 per cent and the number of children under the age of 17 who have been vaccinated decreased from 19.1 per cent to 15.9 per cent.
Among those in at-risk groups for whom vaccination is recommended, children aged 13 to 17 have the lowest uptake at 12 per cent.
However, the number of cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has decreased sharply since an immunisation programme for newborn babies was introduced in September.
About 83 per cent of eligible babies have received the vaccine against RSV and already the number of cases of RSV among infants has dropped to a fraction of what it was.
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