Fears of flu and Covid-19 straining the NHS this winter grow as data shows number of at-risk adults getting free influenza jab is the lowest in eight years with just 45% uptake ...

The number of vulnerable people getting free flu jabs in England is at an eight-year low, raising fears of an outbreak coinciding with a second wave of coronavirus. Last winter just 45 per cent of people under 65 with serious health conditions, who are offered the vaccine for free on the NHS, received the jab. This has tumbled from a peak of 52.3 per cent in the winter of 2013 and is the worst uptake since Public Health England's records began in 2012. This winter's flu drive is expected to be so large – and also delivered in a socially distanced way – that ministers are considering training more health workers to carry out the jabs and to make it possible to get them on a drive-through basis.