![\"Health](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_01KBMKQRG2VYG7SG1SACAGSZ6P.jpg\")
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt speaking with media at the Ulster Hospital Vaccination Centre in Belfast(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n“Flu has come early, and it\u2019s nasty. We have 42 patients across our hospitals at the moment.”Health Minister Mike Nesbitt speaking with media at the Ulster Hospital Vaccination Centre in Belfast(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
A call for vaccine take-up has been issued following a \u201cconcerning\u201d sharp increase in flu cases in Northern Ireland, with one patient in intensive care.<\/p>\n
Stormont<\/a> Health Minister Mike Nesbitt<\/a> said flu has come very early as he visited a vaccine centre at the Ulster Hospital in Belfast<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n The number of flu cases among adults and children has more than trebled in the last two weeks, rising from 273 to 484 last week and 954 this week, according to official figures.<\/p>\n READ MORE: NI flu cases treble in two weeks: The symptoms and key things you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n REDA MORE: ‘The most severe I’ve experienced’: Children hardest hit as flu cases soar<\/a><\/p>\n There have also been 264 flu-related hospital admissions, up from 144 last week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers are very concerning, the problem for me is that it has come very early and that it has hit us extremely hard,\u201d Mr Nesbitt<\/a> told the Press Association.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m here at the vaccine centre at the Ulster Hospital to make an appeal to people: your best defence against this flu is to get the vaccination.<\/p>\n \u201cGet the vaccine, particularly if you\u2019ve got an underlying condition, that flu could really knock you for six.\u201d<\/p>\n Director of nursing David Robinson<\/a> said hospitals are busy with flu having arrived early.<\/p>\n \u201cFlu has come early, and it\u2019s nasty. We have 42 patients across our hospitals at the moment. That\u2019s double the number of patients we had this time last year, and we have one patient in the intensive care unit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strongest defence against flu is vaccination, so we encourage everybody who is eligible to please have their vaccine, and if you\u2019re not feeling well, please look after yourself, maybe go to your local pharmacy, speak to your GP or come to us if you\u2019re very sick.<\/p>\n \u201cI would encourage everybody to get the vaccine as soon as possible, it does work and our programme is running on.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel Spiers, senior commissioning lead for vaccination at the Public Health Agency<\/a>, said: \u201cIt\u2019s really important that people come forward for their flu vaccine. In the last week we have seen a particular peak in the number of flu case and hospital admissions as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a bad cold, it can be really quite serious and in some cases fatal, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, and those are the groups that we\u2019re really encouraging to come forward for vaccination.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can get vaccinated if you\u2019re in any of the eligible cohorts, so if you\u2019re over 65, a health and social care worker or if you\u2019re in a clinical risk group.\u201d<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Flu has come early, and it\u2019s nasty. We have 42 patients across our hospitals at the moment.”Health Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2863,59,102,2213,56,113310,54,55],"class_list":["post-299377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-department-of-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-public-health-agency","tag-uk","tag-ulster-hospital","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Vaccinator](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_01KBMKQCSE6ETP1FFEFH6A48VQ.jpg\")
Vaccinator Alison administering the flu jab to pharmacist Chanel Jones at the Ulster Hospital Vaccination Centre in Belfast(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n