{"id":307499,"date":"2025-12-09T19:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307499\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:49:07","slug":"people-urged-to-wear-masks-when-they-are-ill-as-uk-faces-tidal-wave-of-flu-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307499\/","title":{"rendered":"People urged to wear masks when they are ill as UK faces \u2018tidal wave\u2019 of flu | Flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

People experiencing flu or cold symptoms should wear a mask in public places as the UK grapples with a \u201ctidal wave\u201d of illness, an NHS<\/a> leader has said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said the country was facing a \u201cvery nasty strain of flu\u201d that had occurred earlier in the year than normal, and face coverings should be worn on public transport, as during the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n

He told Times Radio: \u201cWhen you were talking about anything like Covid, I think we need to get back into the habit that if you are coughing and sneezing, but you\u2019re not unwell enough to not go to work, then you must wear a mask when you\u2019re in public spaces, including on public transport, to stop the chances of you giving your virus to somebody else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we were all very good about infection control during Covid. And we really, really need to get back to that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he meant people who had \u201cgot a cold, they\u2019re snuffling, they are coughing\u201d should wear a mask in the office, Elkeles added: \u201cI think that would be very sensible to all their colleagues, or probably their colleagues would say: \u2018Please go home.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have really got to worry about the fact that this is a very nasty strain of flu. It spreads very easily. It\u2019s warm and wet out there and people need to be sensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street said wearing a mask to prevent the spread of respiratory illness was \u201csomething people can consider\u201d.<\/p>\n

A No 10 spokesperson said: \u201cThere is longstanding guidance in place for people on a range of measures they can consider taking to help limit the spread of winter bugs if they have flu-like symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is neither new nor an instruction but simply something people can consider when trying to limit the spread of winter respiratory illnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best defence against flu is the vaccine, which is why we\u2019re ramping up our vaccination efforts this winter with almost 17m flu jabs already delivered, which is 350,000 more than this time last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK Health<\/a> Security Agency wrote in a blog last week that \u201cmasks continue to be a useful tool in limiting the spread of respiratory viruses in some situations\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, rejected the idea, adding she was \u201cstill slightly traumatised by all the mask-wearing that we had to do during Covid\u201d.<\/p>\n

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She told Sky News: \u201cI personally think that face coverings can be a barrier to social interaction, social cohesion and I do worry about a mask mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the government should be mandating anything. Let\u2019s have some common sense. I think people can make up their own minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are really sick, it should be in bed. It should not be on public transport. I think that\u2019s more of a problem. But the truth is, many people are contagious before they realise that they\u2019re even ill. So I\u2019m not sure that it would work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of people in hospital with flu in England is at a record level for this time of year. An average of 1,717 flu patients were in beds in England each day, including 69 in critical care, the most recent data showed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People experiencing flu or cold symptoms should wear a mask in public places as the UK grapples with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-307499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307499","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=307499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}