As of today (January 6), pharmacy teams administered 4,795,086 flu vaccines, according to provisional data gathered by PSNC from entries into the PharmOutcomes and Sonar systems.

With more than two months to go before the end of the 2022/23 flu season, pharmacies have already surpassed the total number of jabs administered during the previous season, which saw a record 4,793,124 vaccinations given.

The 2021/2022 season represented a 73% increase on the previous year’s figures – when pharmacy teams in England administered 2,766,332 flu jabs.

C+D reported in November that community pharmacies had already given almost one million flu jabs between September 1 and October 31, just two months into the season.

Meanwhile, Welsh community pharmacies had delivered flu jabs to 152,593 people by December 2022, according to Community Pharmacy Wales.

Spike in cases

It comes as Superdrug and Boots both announced a drop in the price of their private flu jabs to under £10 amid a spike in hospital cases, following in the steps of Asda and Well last month.

NHS England last week warned that its fears of a COVID-19 and flu “twindemic” have “been realised”, with its latest data showing hospital flu cases rising seven-fold in just a month.

And the latest data released by the UK Health Security Agency last month showed that flu positivity rates have “increased further” to 26.4%, with cases remaining highest between five to 14-year-olds.

C+D reported this week that pharmacists were struggling to get hold of medicines such as Lemsip amid a significant increase in demand for cold and flu treatments.