London NHS chief says ‘stay at home’ as virus sweeps city

Evening Standard

Londoners have been urged by the capital’s NHS chief to “stay at home” and not go on the Tube, trains or buses if they have flu-like symptoms.Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for NHS London, issued the “stay at home” plea, echoing health warnings during the Covid pandemic, as the city faces its biggest “superflu” wave ever.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Dr Chris Strether. I'm the Regional Medical Director for the NHS in London. I'm going

00:06to talk to you about the current situation with flu in London. We've got the worst flu season we've

00:12had since the COVID pandemic five and a half years ago. It's earlier in the year and the variant of

00:21flu we're seeing this year is easier to catch and easier to pass on. So that's resulted in three

00:28times as many people as we would expect at this this time of year being in hospital with symptoms

00:33of flu. There are lots of things that people can do to protect themselves against flu. It's best if

00:40people who've got symptoms, if they've got coughs or a runny nose and can avoid being out in public

00:48and avoid infecting other people. So people with symptoms should stay away from work and stay away

00:53from public transport and stay away from crowded places. It's important that those of us who are

01:00entitled or eligible to vaccination get vaccination promptly. The vaccination is very effective against

01:08the current strain of virus and is completely safe. So we'd tell people the eligible categories are

01:17children from 2 to 17, pregnant mothers, people over 65 and people suffering from long-term health conditions

01:25such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease and lung disease. All these people can access vaccination

01:33via local pharmacies, via the NHS app or via the GP surgeries and we counsel people to get hold of these

01:41these promptly because it's never too late to get vaccinated.

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