WATCH: WHO worries coming flu season will make COVID-19 more difficult to manage

The World Health Organization urges people to get the flu vaccine because hospitals would have a difficult time managing two highly contagious diseases.

Bruce Aylward, co-lead of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus disease 2019, says some countries "in the Northern Hemisphere" were hit by COVID-19 last year as they were coming out of the flu season and hospitals had already increased capacity for flu patients.

"We are going to a high season for transmission, respiratory illness, and hence our concern that we have all possible capacities optimized to be able to manage that and part of this is going to mean managing flu and managing optimal vaccination," Aylward said during a press conference.