is hospitalising nearly 60 times more people this year than last winter, official figures show as the continues to be battered by the virus.

NHS England варианты data show an average of 1,939 people with flu were in hospital each day last week.

It was up 67 per cent on the 1,162 recorded the previous week and 57 times higher than the 32 recorded at the same point in 2021.

Although still lower than Covid, the flu figure was also a sharp increase on the daily average of 480 at the end of November.