Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

We cannot really say that all flu seasons are the same. Some years we have a bad flu season and some years a slightly less severe one. We have a very important flu immunisation programme, which is delivered annually and is to be extended this year to include children aged between two and 12 years old. We have an active process in place for planning for flu this season. We have already established our national flu planning group, which I chair.

We are working very closely with our hospital and CHO colleagues, the community and our GPs on preparing for this year's flu season. With regard to the epidemiology of flu this year, there has not been much flu in the southern hemisphere. Often, we try to extrapolate from there what might happen for us in winter. This may be related to the isolation associated with Covid or to other factors. What we can best do is make sure we have robust flu plans in place throughout the health sector and that we have a very robust immunisation campaign.