Hospitals cut visits in bid to curb flu virus

Visiting restrictions remain in place at three large hospitals today as efforts continue to contain the latest surge in influenza cases.

The limits on visitors were introduced on Friday at St James’s Hospital in Dublin and Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork, and at Cork University Hospital on Saturday evening.

The first month of 2015 saw over 300 cases of influenza reported nationally, with the 142 cases in the last week of January alone higher than for all of January 2014.