UP to 20,000 people have been struck down by the flu in the first week of 2018.
And virus numbers are due to peak this weekend, the HSE said.
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The number of people reporting to their GP with the influenza virus or other respiratory conditions skyrocketed threefold last week compared to the final week of 2017.
The HSE’s Assistant National Director for Public and Child Health Dr Kevin Kelleher today said flu numbers are expected to peak over the weekend and then start to decline.
He estimates there are four to six weeks left in the flu season.
He said: “Basically we are still on the up, probably peaking this week or just next week and then it will come down so there is another four, five or six weeks of flu activity.”
Less than ten people have died after catching the flu so far this season — however, there have been significantly more hospitalisations this year than the last two years.
Almost 500 people were admitted because of the flu last week to the eight hospitals in Ireland that record these figures.
However, more than one million people got the flu jab this year compared to an average of 800,000 in recent years, according to the HSE.
Meanwhile the trolley crisis continues to cripple the hospital network.
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The HSE’s Damien McCallion said hospitals are doing all they can to solve the problem including opening 550 “surge beds” this winter and transferring patients to private hospitals.
Mr McCallion added that elderly patients waiting on trolleys was unacceptable and more investment is needed.
He said: “Clearly we need to invest more and to expand the capacity of the system and not just a few beds but also in relation to clinical staff, community staff and also in terms of some of the models of care.”
