Flu activity remains high in most regions of the U.S. as a winter wave of respiratory illness sweeps across the country. The post-holiday surge in flu cases and hospitalizations is straining many hospitals, leading to overflowing emergency rooms and prompting some facilities to limit patient visitors.
This trend is expected to continue for the several more weeks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest FluView weekly surveillance report for the week ending Jan. 11.
The CDC data also reveals that 1.3 percent of visits to the emergency room around the U.S. were diagnosed as COVID-19 during the same time period, down 0.6 percent from the week before.
Additionally, 1.8 percent of deaths were due to COVID-19, marking a 28.6 percent rise from the week prior.
The number of people that have caught COVID-19, influenza or Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), along with norovirus, has gone up, CDC said in the new Friday update.
Oregon, New Mexico, Louisiana and Tennessee were all identified as having the highest levels of outpatient respiratory illness activity during the most recent weekly report, ending on Jan. 4.
Forty-three states are reporting very high or high flu activity, and of respiratory samples that tested positive for flu at public health labs, nearly 98% were influenza A. Of subtyped samples, 55.5% were H3N2, and 44.5% were 2009 H1N1.
Recent Comments