UK should prepare for "harsh winter flu" warns Dr Hopkins

One of England's leading doctors has warned the UK to prepare for a 'harsh winter' as the population's immunity to respiratory viruses other than Covid may be lower than usual. Dr Susan Hopkins said the NHS should be "ready" for increases in flu and other similar diseases.

This comes before England's first step in facilitating exclusion, with all pupils returning to school on Monday.

Most students have been learning at home since Christmas.

Dr Hopkins, who is in charge of the Covid strategy of Public Health England, said the UK needed to be 'better prepared' than it was last autumn when new, faster-spreading variants of the virus emerged.

This increased the infection rates and forced further closure measures throughout the winter.

Dr Hopkins told the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show: "I think we need to prepare for a harsh winter, not just with coronavirus, but we've had a year of almost no respiratory viruses of any other kind. "And that means's probably the population's immunity to it is less. '

"So we could push in flu. We could see increases in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens." added Dr. Hopkins.

Dr Hopkins said her role as government adviser was to 'prepare for the worst-case scenarios'.

"That does not mean it will necessarily happen, but my job is to make sure we have options available for the country if things are not as satisfactory as we all want," she said.

During the winter of last year, about 30 million people - more than ever before - were invited to get a free flu, as ministers feared the double threat it poses with the coronavirus.

Influenza can be a serious condition - it kills around 11,000 people in England every year and many more people receive hospital treatment for it.

People at high risk for flu also run the greatest risk of Covid-19.