• Latest figures show 100,000 cases recorded in past week
• National Flu Pandemic Service can take 1m calls a week

There are 840 people seriously ill in hospital with swine flu and 100,000 new cases have been recorded in the past week, according to the government’s chief medical officer.

The number of people in hospital includes 63 in intensive care.

The figures were given by Sir Liam Donaldson during an early afternoon press conference at the Department of Health, providing a weekly update on the progress of the disease throughout Britain.

The number of deaths associated with the swine flu outbreak has risen to 30. Last week the government announced there had been 29 deaths in total and 55,000 new cases in the previous week.

The National Flu Pandemic Service for England, which started today, will be capable of answering more than a million calls a week, it was confirmed today. It will be staffed by more than 1,500 people, with the option of recruiting 500 more.

They will, it is hoped, be capable of answering more than 200,000 calls a day. There will be an alternative internet service where people answer a questionnaire to receive a diagnosis of swine flu and are given a unique code authorising the release of anti-viral drugs.

The details emerged as scientists suggested that the outbreak may have peaked for now in Scotland, implying that the surge in cases in England could also subside within weeks. One of the planning scenarios used by the DoH assumes that the figures will fall back during the summer, when schools are on holiday, and then surge again once term starts in the autumn.

One of the UK’s leading bacteriologists, Professor Hugh Pennington, said this morning that Scotland was “possibly through the worst of this phase of the virus”.

Cases in the worst Scottish hotspots – Glasgow and Paisley – began to tail off earlier this month. That is one of the reasons why Scottish health ministers are not following moves in England to set up a national flu pandemic helpline – existing NHS services are able to cope with the current rate of cases.

The H1N1 virus caught hold in Scotland more quickly, after the first cases in the UK emerged in the small town of Polmont near Falkirk in April, and the first death of a swine flu patient outside the Americas.

To the surprise of experts, the virus was confined largely to three clusters, in southern Glasgow, Paisley and Dunoon, which erupted in May and June. The outbreak in Dunoon subsided quickly. Reported flu cases in the greater Glasgow area – which saw the first swine flu deaths in the UK – have also declined.

Last week the Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said the overall rate of people reporting flu-like symptoms was not significantly higher than normal for this time of year. She said there were “encouraging signs” that cases were declining in the Glasgow area.

Prof Pennington, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, also cautioned against the rush to set up mass vaccinations of the population before the vaccine had been fully tested – a move being considered by ministers.

He said proposals to bypass normal testing procedures were laid out in the flu pandemic plan, but this virus was not proving as fatal or virulent as predicted in the plans. Pennington suggested it may be wiser to wait until the vaccine had been fully tested and if necessary altered before rushing it out.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have recommended the suspension of the sharing of the chalice at communion as the spread of swine flu continues, it was announced today.

The archbishops have written to bishops in the Church of England setting out the new measures following DoH advice not to share “common vessels” for food or drink.

The letter said it aimed to offer guidance at a national level about how church worship could “best take into account the interests of public health during the current phase of the swine flu pandemic”.

Some bishops have already taken the step in a bid to limit the spread of the virus.