
Twelve more US children have died of influenza, surpassing the previous high for a flu season outside of a pandemic year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly update today.
The pediatric deaths push the season total to 216, surpassing last season's total of 207. Ten of the children died of influenza A, and two died from influenza B. Subtyping showed that eight of the influenza A deaths were caused by the H1N1 strain, and four were H3N2.
Flu activity as a whole, however, continues a slow decline, with outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) down to 2.2% from 2.4% last week. Hospitalizations have also dropped to 2,857 from 3,601.
No states reported moderate, high, or very high ILI levels; last week, one state each noted high or moderate ILI activity. Flu test positivity slid from 5.6% last week to 4.6%, but the cumulative hospitalization rate edged up slightly from 126.6 per 100,000 last week to 127.4 cases per 100,000—the highest since 2010-11.
COVID-19, RSV activity still low
CDC data updates today show low levels of COVID-19 activity. Two states, Minnesota and Missouri, recorded high levels of COVID-19 concentrations in wastewater, up from one (Louisiana) last week. The proportion of overall deaths caused by COVID-19 was 0.6%, compared with 0.7% last week and 0.2% for flu.
The percentage of COVID-19 infections caused by the dominant Omicron subvariant, LP.8.1, was the same as last week, at 69%, followed by XEC (10%) and LF.7.7.2 (6%), the CDC variant tracker shows.
Utah is the only state reporting moderate levels of influenza A wastewater activity, while the rest are low or very low, as are all respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) levels.