The report puts the level of flu virus activity as dropping in early February with the incidence rate falling from 82.1 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants to 79 cases and a level deemed moderate.


The report also details the fluctuations in the respective strains of virus with the A (H3) and B strains accounting for half of all cases with the subtype A (H3) on the increase from previous weeks and reflecting how this type contains different strains beyond the reach of the annual 2014/2015 flu vaccine.


The report also details how six new patients were admitted into intensive care in the first week of February and that of the 58 persons in intensive care for flu related diseases, ten had died mostly from the B strain of the virus.


The mortality rate “for all causes” continued "above the expected levels" seen in previous flu seasons although now on a downward curve.


The surveillance data report a total of 3,107 deaths in the week between January 18 and 24, 2,986 between January 25 and 31 and 2,859 between February 1 and 7.


This report emphasises that this spike in deaths incided only on the over 75 age group and clustered in the regions of the North, Centre and Tagus Valley and "might be interlinked with the extreme cold, the increase in acute respiratory infections and the flu season."


The National Flu Surveillance system entered operation in October 2014 and is ongoing until May 2015.