Twelve children have been admitted to intensive care with influenza since September, Hong Kong’s health minister has said, urging parents to arrange vaccinations as soon as possible.

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau renewed calls for flu vaccination on Wednesday after two more severe paediatric cases were reported on consecutive days, both involving two-year-old children.

Lo said the summer flu season begun unusually late, in early September, and warned of a possible overlap between the summer and winter flu seasons.

“It’s unfortunate that two young children developed severe symptoms and were hospitalised in intensive care two days in a row. They are now in critical condition,” Lo said.

Twelve children had been hospitalised or admitted to intensive care units due to flu since September, including a 13-year-old girl who died last week, he added.

Lo urged more schools to arrange influenza vaccinations for their students as soon as possible and encouraged parents to get inoculated as well, noting that 587 schools had reported outbreaks of varying severity so far.