Cities offer free flu shots as tough winter warned

A number of cities in China have started offering free flu shots for the elderly and other vulnerable groups as experts said this winter's flu season could be tough due to declining immunity against the disease and lingering threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shen Hongbing, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and deputy director of the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, said that after two years of low influenza activity amid the pandemic, preexisting immunity against the disease has dropped.

This year, the world has already registered a marked increase in influenza incidence rates, he said.