Hong Kong’s current summer flu season is much more active than last winter’s and is expected to continue into November, a senior health official has warned.
Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said on Tuesday that about 70 outbreaks were recorded weekly over the past month, far exceeding last winter’s peak of around 15, indicating that the virus had been very active this season.
But Tsui said the number of cases had not yet peaked and the summer season would last at least until November, urging residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“Winter influenza will begin when the weather turns cold. The two flu seasons are likely to overlap,” Tsui said. “More people will be infected with the flu and the risk of an outbreak will increase.”
As of Monday, 390 school outbreaks have been recorded since September, mostly in primary and secondary schools, affecting more than 3,000 people, according to Tsui.
His warning came after Hong Kong recorded its first paediatric flu-related fatality over the weekend – a 13-year-old girl who had not been vaccinated this year.
The girl, who studied at the TWGHs Wong Fung Ling College in Ma On Shan, was vaccinated under the government’s 2024-25 seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) programme but had not received the jab for the current 2025-26 season.
She was found to have collapsed at home on October 9 and was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, before being transferred to Hong Kong Children’s Hospital.
According to the centre, Hong Kong entered the summer flu season in the week between August 31 and September 6, when the weekly percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for seasonal influenza viruses exceeded the baseline threshold.
Tsui said that while Hong Kong had experienced summer flus in about half of the past decade, it was rare for the season to start in September, noting that the timing was more challenging because vaccines from the previous year often expired then.
“It also coincided with the start of the academic year and with more students gathering, so the outbreaks have been more severe,” he said, calling on people to get flu vaccines promptly.
About 2,300 schools, or 99 per cent, have signed up for the vaccination outreach programme by authorities.
As of September 29, about 300 schools had students vaccinated under the programme. Vaccines are planned for around 58 per cent of schools by October and 93 per cent by November.
Tsui said authorities were working with service providers to facilitate vaccination, but the timeline could not be significantly shortened due to the large number of schools.
He also said that advancing vaccination by several months was not feasible right now because it required global coordination.
“The World Health Organization will reveal the virus strains prevalent in the northern hemisphere only in February or March. Only after that will pharmaceutical companies begin production and we can receive the vaccines in September,” he said.
Therefore, authorities would now focus on vaccinating residents starting in October to protect against the coming winter flu, he added.
