Hong Kong’s summer flu season very active, may last until November: expert

Hong Kong’s current summer flu season is much more active than last winter’s and is expected to continue into November, a senior health official has warned.

Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said on Tuesday that about 70 outbreaks were recorded weekly over the past month, far exceeding the around 15 logged during last winter’s peak, indicating that the virus had been very active this season.

But Tsui said the number of cases had not yet peaked and the summer season would last at least until November, urging residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Winter influenza will begin when the weather turns cold. The two flu seasons are likely to overlap,” Tsui said. “More people will be infected with the flu and the risk of an outbreak will increase.”

As of Monday, 390 school outbreaks have been recorded since September, mostly in primary and secondary schools, affecting more than 3,000 people, according to Tsui.

His warning came after Hong Kong recorded its first paediatric flu-related death over the weekend, when a 13-year-old girl who had not been vaccinated this year died.

The girl, who studied at the TWGHs Wong Fung Ling College in Ma On Shan, was vaccinated under the government’s 2024-25 seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) programme but had not received the jab for the current 2025-26 season.