Up to 1,500 could be hospitalised with flu by Christmas week – minister

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill called on anyone vulnerable to the flu to get vaccinated. Picture: Antonio Guillem Fernandez/Alamy

There could be 1,500 people in hospitals with the flu over Christmas week, the health minister has cautioned, amid warnings of severe illness from a new strain of the virus.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said flu is already spreading among children, with Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) sites under pressure from an unusually high number of patients.