Flu on rise across France

A total 112 people were hospitalised with flu in France last week, as an epidemic grips the Île-de-France and eight more of the 13 regions hit 'pre-epidemic levels'.

Santé Publique France warned that cases of flu in the greater Paris region had reached epidemic levels, and the number of cases was rapidly approaching that level in Hauts-de-France, Normandy, Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Centre-Val de Loire, New-Aquitaine, Occitania and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d' Azur.

The remaining four regions - Grand Est, Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Corsica - are currently well below epidemic levels, though cases are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

Gastroenteritis, meanwhile, remains at epidemic levels in Grand Est and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, and was classed as 'pre-epidemic' in Hauts-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitania and Corsica.

And bronchiolitis, an illness that more commonly affects children under the age of two, is at epidemic levels in all regions of France, except Corsica.