LOCKDOWNS and better hygiene have seen flu almost destroyed, say experts.
The number of sufferers has plunged 95 per cent to levels not seen in 130 years.
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Simon de Lusignan, professor of primary care at Oxford University, said: “I cannot think of a year this has happened.”
In the second week of January, usually the peak of the season, the number of flu-like illnesses reported to GPs was 1.1 per 100,000 people, compared with a five-year average rate of 27.
Out of four million patients at 392 doctors’ surgeries in England, 42 had a flu-like illness, about 0.001 per cent.
The areas that escaped flu most were the Midlands and the east of England, each with a rate of 0.5 per 100,000 people.
Flu has also disappeared in Wales, at one case per 100,000, and in Scotland it is just 0.5 per 100,000.
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said measures taken to fight coronavirus were likely to be the main reason for flu’s decline.
