The National Home Doctor Service has reported high demand for the service in Canberra since its launch about a week ago, with 430 home visits made by Thursday. The figure was expected to rise to more than 470 by Friday.

Mark Cavill, who is employed by the service, said it had been well received and figures suggested there was a huge appetite for such a service in the ACT.

The bulk-billing home doctor service is available to more than 190,000 households and 27 aged-care facilities.

Dr Cavill said people could access urgent after-hours care when it might not be possible for them to get to a hospital or medical centre.

"A lot of the calls we receive fall into two broad spectrums, which is children at home where often parents have multiple children at home [and] one or more may be sick, they want to see a doctor but it's fairly hard to get three or four children into a car at 8pm and find a doctor or a clinic that's open," he said.

"We're starting to see more elderly and infirm people who need medical assistance but they're unable to travel or it would be very difficult for them to travel [because of] dementia or disability."

Dr Cavill said many calls had been related to upper respiratory tract infections, flu-like illnesses, coughs, colds, chest infections and gastroenteritis.

It comes as ACT Health revealed the territory was on track to record a relatively moderate flu season.

There were 633 flu cases reported to the Health Protection Service between January and August. There were 138 cases reported last month

Data shows two people presented to public hospital emergency departments with the flu in June and six last month. There were 699 presentations to walk-in centres for flu or cold last month, up from 335 in June.

"It does indicate there are more out there but that peak is partly an increase in numbers and partly, usually, an increase in the people testing the people coming through their door," ACT chief health officer Andrew Pengilley said.

He said the flu season tended to peak this month.

The influenza A virus has been responsible for about 95 per cent of flu cases in the ACT this year. ACT Health said the H3 strain and H1N1 swine flu were the only two flu strains identified in the ACT this year.

Dr Pengilley said flu vaccinations were especially important for at-risk groups such as people aged over 65, the chronically ill, those taking medication that reduced their immunity, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and pregnant women.

To avoid the spread of colds and flu, people should stay home if sick, cover their mouth when coughing or sneezing and wash their hands, he said.

Dr Pengilley said Norovirus, which is gastroenteritis, also tended to occur during winter.

An ACT Health spokeswoman said the flu virus could survive for between two and eight hours on surfaces, including hands, and touching contaminated surfaces and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes could lead to infection.

She said more than 52,000 flu vaccines had been distributed to GPs and immunisation providers this year under the National Immunisation Program.