Flu Activity at Very High Levels in U.S.

Flu activity continues to climb higher in the U.S., as a CDC weekly report placed healthcare visits for respiratory virus symptoms at the “very high level.” CIDRAP has the news.

Test positivity for flu rose to 31.6%, “and outpatient visits for flulike illness rose to 7.8%, remaining above the national baseline for the tenth straight week.” Flu is very high or high in 45 jurisdictions, “and the CDC estimates there have been 24 million infections, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from the virus.”

The CDC also said that “emergency department (ED) visits for flu are at the very high level, with the highest levels in children ages 0 to 4 years old and those ages 5 to 17 years old.” Rising hospitalization rates are affecting “all age groups,” however.

Additionally, COVID activity “remains elevated, but most markers are trending downward, the CDC said. ED visits, highest in older people, are at the low level, and the group predicts that over the next 2 weeks, ED visits will remain at the lower level compared to previous winter seasons.” Test positivity for COVID also declined over the last week, and hospitalization rates “remain elevated, but much lower than for flu.”

Wastewater detections for COVID remain high, and the Northeast has seen a recent sharp rise. RSV activity “continues to decline across most of the country, with ED levels declining and highest in children and hospitalizations elevated in older people in some parts of the country. The CDC wastewater detections for RSV are at the moderate level.”