People have been urged to get their flu jabs as a leading clinician warned it could still be a serious, potentially even fatal, illness.

Stockton Council's health and wellbeing board heard how the NHS and other partners were campaigning for people to take up flu and Covid jabs after numbers had declined in recent years. Councillors spoke of confusion among residents with changing eligibility for vaccinations, which can be booked through the NHS website or by calling 119 free.

Professor Deepak Dwarakanath, medical director for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said yesterday (October 29): "Please, please get your flu vaccine, however young and fit you are. I have seen people in their 40s end up seriously ill and on ventilators.

"Flu still sadly does kill people. And I t

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