Publishing the first of its weekly winter respiratory virus surveillance reports today, the UKHSA said flu trends have been rising since August and there were possible signs we may see an early flu season.

In a media briefing this afternoon, national medical director, Frankie Swords, said: ‘It is very early in the season but the number of admissions for flu are the highest that I can remember seeing at this time of year and its's coincided with the expected increase in Covid cases in our hospitals.

‘This is coming on the back of the busiest summer we have ever had in our emergency departments so we have got very busy hospitals, so there are slightly ominous early signs of winter pressure.'

Swords said 95% of hospital occupancy was used on average on every day in September.

‘We are acting early and I really encourage people to act early because winter is coming and the pressure is going to build and rise as temperatures fall,' she added.

The national medical director said vaccination had been made as easy as possible this year with jabs offered to children and those pregnant from 1 September.

Swords said 3.9m people had been vaccinated against flu so far, with 730,000 people jabbed against Covid in the first four days of roll out.

The national medical director said it had been a ‘really good start but we are not complacent, so if you are eligible get your vaccine now'.