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Galicia Triggers Winter Plan as Early Flu Wave Builds

Preliminary UK data suggest this year's shots still cut severe illness linked to the emerging H3N2 K subclade.

Overview

  • The Galician health department recommended masks in clinics, urgent-care settings and hospital units caring for vulnerable patients, and kept a 70‑pharmacy sentinel network to track flu and covid test sales.
  • Primary-care consultations for influenza in Galicia rose 64% week over week to 45.3 per 100,000, and hospitals recorded 182 admissions in the latest week with the highest rates in people 80 and older.
  • Vigo’s hospital complex (Chuvi) added RSV to its rapid molecular testing panel and readied staffing, bed and potential non-urgent surgery adjustments to manage respiratory surges.
  • UKHSA reports a season starting about five weeks early in the UK with most recent cases attributed to A(H3N2) subclade K, and early analyses estimate vaccination reduces hospitalisation risk by roughly 70–75% in children and 30–40% in adults.
  • Local vaccination uptake in the Vigo area is the lowest in Galicia among children and older adults, which officials warn could heighten pressure on services as activity rises.