According to a report fromSky News, up to 60,000 people could die from flu this winter and the NHS may not be able to cope with a combination of seasonal viruses and coronavirus.
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Flu season
The stern warning was made by scientists who say the flu season could be particularly deadly but the enhanced flu jab programme and rapid tests for flu could help to reduce the risks.
COVID-19 restrictions meant that many respiratory viruses were not able to spread last winter as they normally would and this has concerned some virologists who say population immunity to seasonal respiratory illnesses might be compromised.
As people socialise more these viruses will be more rampant in the air again.
Admissions and deaths
In the new report from the Academy of Medical Sciences, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) hospital admissions and deaths could be twice the number seen in a 'normal' year and could coincide with an increase in coronavirus infections.
Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, chair of the Expert Advisory Group which wrote the report, said:
There are four main challenges: firstly a surge in respiratory viruses could cause wide-spread ill health and put pressure on the NHS.
Secondly, we're dealing with a third wave of COVID-19 and multiple outbreaks and the NHS has got to catch up with the backlog that it has accumulated over the last 15 months or so, and that's going to be a real challenge.
Thirdly, the NHS is already under pressure, so is likely not to be able to cope with these winter challenges going forward.
Finally, the worse physical and mental health within the UK population due to the pandemic.
He added:
Society as a whole will have learned from the last 15 months that it isn't acceptable that (we had) all these respiratory viruses washing around in the winter and nearly closing our National Health Service.
