References
Seasonal flu vaccines and COVID boosters
Last year saw the largest roll-out of the influenza vaccination programme to ensure that as many eligible people as possible were vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to the highest level of vaccination ever achieved for over 65s and for frontline workers. As a result of the high levels of vaccination and transmission-based precautions, which were in place on a national and global scale during the pandemic, such as social distancing, mask wearing and isolation of people with COVID-19 or flu-like symptoms, there was a significant reduction of circulating Influenza through the 2020/2021 winter period. Now that social distancing measures have been relaxed and social contact and mixing is returning to normal levels, it is expected that this winter will be the first where seasonal Influenza and COVID-19 will both be circulating, along with other respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The mathematical modelling suggests that this season could see a 50% rise in Influenza cases and could begin earlier than previous influenza seasons (Public Health England (PHE), 2021a).
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