About 140,000 residents of Taiwan went to hospitals last week due to the flu, which is a record number for the same period of the past ten years, informed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reports the Taipei Times.

"(…) hospital visits for flu-like illnesses last week rose to 139,613 — the highest in a decade for the same period — while there were 49 serious flu cases and 10 flu deaths," the CDC stated.

The island's dominant strain remains the H1N1, also known as swine flu.

From the start of this flu season in Taiwan on October 1 last year, 461 cases of serious flu complications have been reported, including 101 deaths.

Doctors urge residents to get vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible.

Taiwanese doctors expect the flu outbreak to begin in the island around the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on January 29 this year, and Taiwan's respective festivities will run from January 25 to 31.

The CDC estimates that the flu outbreak will reach a peak of about 150,000 in the week around the Lunar New Year holiday.