A chief medical adviser has warned adults to stay at home when unwell or wear masks when going outside to minimize the spread of the disease.
Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), added that adults should not “visit vulnerable people unless it is urgent” when they feel unwell.
She said: “Adults should try to stay at home when they are unwell and if you must go out, wear a face covering. When they are unwell, do not visit health facilities or visit vulnerable people unless be urgent”.
The advice is part of the UKHSA’s “simple steps” to help protect children and vulnerable people as pupils return to schools and universities after the Christmas holidays.
Professor Hopkins added that it is “important to minimize the spread of infection in schools and other educational and childcare settings”, before suggesting that children with a fever or feeling unwell should also stay home from school or the nursery to help stop the spread of the disease.
The advice comes as a senior NHS boss said on Monday that the NHS is under “unbearable strain” as pressure mounts on the government to take action.
Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, told Sky News that most NHS leaders say “this is the hardest winter they have ever had”, before adding that “we cannot keep it up.”
Sky News understands critical incidents have also been called in at least seven health trusts.
Flu and COVID ‘circulating at high levels’
The UKHSA warned that both flu and COVID-19 are “circulating at high levels”, which are likely to continue to rise in the coming weeks.
Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and founder of the COVID Zoe app, also highlighted an Omicron variant after a scientist said cases had more than doubled in America in a week.
High numbers of scarlet fever, which is caused by group A streptococcus (strep A), continue to be reported in the UK. At least 30 children in the UK have died from invasive Strep A, and across all age groups in England, there have been 122 deaths from the virus.
Other ways to prevent the spread of the disease include “catching coughs and sneezes in tissues and then packing them,” getting children to practice good hygiene and getting a flu shot.
“Remember that flu vaccination is still available to all eligible groups and is the best protection against the virus,” Professor Hopkins urged.
“We have seen good uptake in older age groups, but vaccination among young children remains low.
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0:31 NHS pressure now ‘worse than peak of COVID’
“The flu can be very nasty and in some cases can lead to more serious illness. Getting your child vaccinated protects them and others they come into contact with, and it’s not too late.”
Children who can get the flu shot include two- and three-year-olds on August 31, 2022, all primary school-age children and some secondary school children.