‘People still need to get their flu shots’

The head of the Medical Association on Monday said it’s important for people to get their seasonal flu vaccination, despite admitting that the risk of a flu epidemic was low as everyone was wearing masks.

Dr Choi Kin said the risk of death was much higher, and the symptoms of pneumonia much more severe, if a patient contracted both flu and Covid-19 at the same time.

But he said the current health measures in the community meant the risk of this happening was low.

“The risk of death will be much higher, the severity of pneumonia will be more serious if you catch Covid at the same time, but the chance of getting Covid at the same time is not really that high in the current situation because people are wearing masks, and if you wear a mask you get less chance of catching the flu and Covid-19 easy” he said.

Choi added that most of his patients who had previously had flu shots had returned this year to get the jabs again, and he thought the number of people getting vaccinated against the flu would be the same as in previous years.