Dr Hampton thanked staff who were working “above and beyond”, but said the issue was not isolated to Craigavon’s ED.
He urged younger people who are normally fit and well and develop flu-like symptoms to stay at home, to not come to EDs unless absolutely necessary, and to use services like Phone First, external.
The Public Health Agency (PHA) said there had been a large increase in flu cases in the past two weeks – with the highest amongst the 0-4 age group
Dr Peter Naughton, a health protection consultant with the PHA, said the flu season started earlier this year, and there had been a higher number of cases.
“Last week, we saw about 900 new cases of flu, which was about double what we had seen the previous week,” he told BBC News NI.
“Of those [900], about 250 people ended up in hospital because of flu, which again was about a 50% in what we had seen in the previous week.”
BBC News NI understands that there are 30 adults hospitalised in Craigavon Area Hospital with flu.