Residents in Dorset are being told to get their flu jab as a matter of urgency.

With pressure on health services already at an all-time high across the county, people are being urged to get their flu jab to minimise cases turning serious this winter.

In an interview with the Daily Echo, Mark Marriott, senior responsible officer for the Dorset COVID vaccination programme at Dorset HealthCare said they were tracking flu trends in Australia and Asia to see what could happen here this winter.

"There's not been a lot of flu circulating naturally for past two years.

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"Some of our more vulnerable people - ages two and three and the four and five-year-olds - have not seen flu for a couple of years - and pregnant people.

"We watch Australia and Asia closely as we normally follow their trend.

"They are having a considerable flu season in Australia and we would anticipate having that here.

"We are vaccinating all the way through to February for both Covid and flu."

Mark said there was a peak of Covid in October, from which we're coming down from.

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Across Dorset last week there were only 35 people in beds for Covid – none of which were on ventilators.

But Mark warned that Australia had seen a second peak "which we could expect around January".

When it comes to flu, he urged people to get the vaccine, reiterating that it does prevent you getting the disease and also makes it less acute should you be unlucky enough to get it.

"We need people this year particularly to come forward."

In terms of the vaccination programme, more than 50 per cent of the eligible population have been vaccinated for both Covid and flu.

And when asked if the Covid booster would be able to rolled out to the rest of the population, Mark said this was part of wider surge plans should a spike in cases occur.