The number of patients attending designated flu clinics rose from 410 two weeks ago to 704 last week. The number of institutional outbreaks between February 28 and March 3 was 23, compared with just three in the two weeks between February 14 and 27. Some 55.1 of every 1,000 private-doctor consultations were related to flu last week, an increase from 42.8 per cent two weeks ago.