Health authorities in England have announced that not a single case of influenza has been detected this year, with one professor suggesting that mask wearing should be kept in place during winter to drive down flu deaths to “zero.”

“The social restrictions brought in to curb transmission of coronavirus, combined with an increased uptake of flu vaccine, have both been credited with driving down infections,” reports the Independent.

Of the 685,243 samples tested at the PHE’s laboratories since the first week of January, not a single flu infection was discovered.

Professor Christina Pagel went on to suggest that some of the measures brought in to fight coronavirus could be kept in place to combat flu infections.

Asserting that “we can reduce flu deaths to pretty much zero,” Pagel said it is “worth encouraging people to wear masks” on public transport and in other busy environments every winter.

As we previously highlighted, other health experts have suggested that flu cases are so dramatically low because influenza cases are being falsely counted as COVID cases.

Last month, top epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski asserted that, “Influenza has been renamed COVID-19 in large part.”