The Government has announced that people at high risk from swine flu will receive their vaccinations by mid-December. Skip related content
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High-risk groups to get flu jab by December
Those with conditions such as heart disease, cancer, asthma and diabetes are first in line for the jabs, alongside pregnant women and frontline NHS staff. Over 11 million people fall into these groups.
Boxes of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine have begun arriving in GP surgeries this week, although the Government has admitted that very few will have received them yet.
Ian Dalton, the national director for flu resilience, said all GPs in England should have their first box of 500 doses in the next three to four weeks.
Mr Dalton said there were millions of people to vaccinate and so it would take some time to get round to everybody, but added that it was hoped at-risk groups would be vaccinated by mid-December.
The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show an estimated 78,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the past week, up from 53,000 in the week before.
The number of swine flu deaths in England now stands at 97, with seven in Wales, 25 in Scotland and eight in Northern Ireland. The UK total is 137 deaths.
The Government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said: "We are seeing a level of activity in the community which has not yet reached anywhere near the levels we were seeing in July. But we are seeing a level of activity of serious illness in hospitals which has easily surpassed the level we saw in July."
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