GPs seeing five times more flu cases than last year

Almost 20,000 more vaccines have been administered in the same period, and the Scottish Government argues this is the best way to protect yourself from the most common strain of the virus.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith said: “Flu-like illnesses will continue to impact on the health and social care services for some time, but the recent decrease does offer hope that we are over the worst.

“We will, however, continue to monitor trends for some weeks yet.”

“The predominant strain is covered by this year’s flu vaccine and I’d continue to encourage anyone in an eligible group to take up the free jab as it is the best defence against flu.”