The UK's Health Department has urged vulnerable groups to get vaccinated and take necessary protection as hospitals nationwide received more than seven hundred flu patients.

The number of flu cases is four times that of last year. In regions like eastern England, flu cases are increasing so sharply that hospitals there have issued a black or red alert under severe conditions.

Heath officials say that the government will invest about 1.6 million US dollars to raise public awareness in preventing the flu from spreading.

The flu has killed thirty nine people in the UK since October, with thirty six having died from the H1N1 Flu.