A surge in flu cases will present the NHS with a challenge "unlike any it has seen since the pandemic", Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.
Writing in the Times, Streeting said the NHS was in a "precarious situation", and warned that next week's planned strikes by resident doctors could be the "Jenga piece that collapses the tower".
The number of patients in hospital with influenza has risen more than 50% in the past week, with officials warning there is still no sign of it peaking yet.
In the week up to Sunday there were 2,660 flu cases a day on average in hospital, which NHS England said was the equivalent of having three hospitals full of flu patients.
But the Medical Director for the NHS in London, Chris Streather, said the flu situation was "well within the boundaries" of what the NHS could cope with and that hospitals were better prepared for large disease outbreaks since the Covid pandemic.
