Replies

Key Points

Nationally, the percent of laboratory specimens testing positive for influenza at clinical laboratories continued to decrease and is now low.
ILI activity continued to decrease nationally but remains elevated.
Recent changes in healthcare seeking behavior, including increasing use of telemedicine and recommendations to limit emergency department (ED) visits to severe illness, as well as increasing levels of social distancing, are affecting the number of persons with ILI and their reasons for seeking care in outpatient and ED settings.
Laboratory confirmed influenza-associated hospitalization rates for the U.S. population overall are higher than most recent seasons and rates for children 0-4 years and adults 18-49 years are the highest CDC has on record for these age groups, surpassing rates reported during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Hospitalization rates for school-aged children (5-17 years) are higher than any recent regular season but remain lower than rates experienced by this age group during the pandemic.
The percent of deaths associated with pneumonia and influenza is above the epidemic threshold. The increase is due to an increase in pneumonia deaths rather than influenza deaths and likely reflects COVID-19 activity.
166 influenza-associated deaths in children have been reported so far this season. This number is high compared to recent seasons, but remains lower than the 2017-2018 season during which 188 pediatric deaths were reported.
CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 39 million flu illnesses, 410,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu.
Antiviral medications are an important adjunct to flu vaccine in the control of influenza. Almost all (>99%) of the influenza viruses tested this season are susceptible to the four FDA-approved influenza antiviral medications recommended for use in the U.S. this season.
With ongoing declines in influenza activity and the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient ILI and P&I mortality data, this will be the final week of a full FluView report. More detailed interpretation of data from these systems can be found in COVIDView starting next week (week 15).

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm