Number of swine flu cases doubles

The number of swine flu cases recorded in the country has doubled in the past week, with 26 people currently being treated in intensive care units.

The Department of Health this afternoon said that GPs have diagnosed some 5,400 new cases in the past seven days, double the rate of the previous week.

It is expected the rate of infection will further increase again next week when schools reopen.

Health chiefs however stressed that the overall increase in cases of influenza represented the beginning of the annual influenza season and was not to be taken as evidence of a pandemic.

“What we are dealing with here is a seasonal influenza epidemic,” said the HSE's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at a briefing in Dublin today.

It is not a pandemic," he added, "it is something that we both expected and anticipated."