Hong Kong set for late start to winter flu season in February, expert says, calling on high-risk groups to get vaccinated immediately
- Professor Ivan Hung says seasonal flu cycle has been disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a delayed start to winter outbreak
- ‘At present, Hong Kong is in the final stage of summer influenza season as the outbreak has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic,’ he adds
“At present, Hong Kong is in the final stage of summer influenza season as the outbreak has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he told a radio programme. “The winter influenza outbreak will begin from February to April next year with the flu cycle and coronavirus seasons emerging alternatively every six months.”
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Hung, who also serves on the government’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, urged those considered high-risk groups, such as children, the chronically ill and elderly people living in care homes, to get an influenza shot immediately to prepare for the coming winter outbreak.
“We strongly advise these groups of people to get jabbed against the seasonal flu. This is the best preventive measure against infections,” he said.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau, appearing on a TV programme, said getting vaccinated was the surest way to prevent contracting the seasonal flu or experiencing any resulting complications.
“After getting vaccinated, your immunity against flu infections will be boosted,” he said, adding that getting immunity from a jab was safer than acquiring it through an infection.
Hong Kong’s summer flu season began in late August and has resulted in more than 140 outbreaks at primary schools and about 80 at secondary ones as of late September.
The government rolled out several influenza vaccination programmes on Thursday that cover the elderly and staff at residential care homes, students, those with chronic illness, medical workers and other high-risk groups.
“The latest surveillance data … revealed that the local seasonal influenza activity has continued to increase,” a Centre for Health Protection spokesman said. “It is expected that the summer influenza season will persist for a period of time.”
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Dr Wilson Lam, vice-president of the Hong Kong Society for Infectious Diseases, said he strongly recommended that vulnerable groups get vaccinated against both seasonal flu and Covid-19 every year.
“Actually the Covid-19 pandemic has never gone away, and we are still subject to its risks while seasonal flu is unpredictable,” he said. “The vulnerable groups such as the elderly and chronically ill should get jabbed against both illnesses to avoid getting serious infections.”
He also advised healthy individuals to consider receiving shots against both infections as seasonal flu and Covid-19 were highly transmissible and could easily spread to their families if they became infected.
Professor Hung also called on high-risk groups to get a booster shot against Covid-19 at least once every year, noting that the number of cases had increased since the beginning of October.
But he encouraged people to wait until next month before getting a booster shot, since Pfizer and Moderna’s third-generation Covid-19 vaccines were expected to become locally available. The jabs were approved by the United States Federal Drug Administration on September 11.
The government’s advisory panels would meet to discuss importing the new vaccine to the city, he said.
