This year's winter surge of influenza and COVID-19 has yet to arrive for most of the country, data published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, with trends so far a fraction of what they were at this time last year.
"COVID-19 activity remains low and is stable in most areas. Seasonal influenza activity is increasing slightly among children but remains low nationally," the CDC said this week, in its weekly report on data about the two viruses.
The agency's updates are usually published every week by Friday, but were delayed until after the weekend because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
A return to normal for flu?
By this time last year, data tracking outpatient visits to places like emergency rooms and doctor's offices for the flu had already climbed above the agency's baseline for the season. This year's latest report suggests flu cases are only now starting to cross that threshold.
"We're maybe slightly later than last year, and maybe quite a bit later than the year before, but those years were unusually early," said University of North Carolina epidemiology professor Justin Lessler, a top expert in the CDC-backed network of disease forecasters.
Lessler said this year's figures look "much closer to about where you'd expect a normal flu season to be" before the COVID-19 pandemic, when measures to curb the outbreak scrambled seasonal patterns of flu and other respiratory germs.
Compared with last year, rates of weekly flu hospitalizations are around five times lower. Emergency room visits with flu from school-age kids have accelerated, the CDC's data shows, but remain less than a third of what they were at this time last year.
One big factor that could be affecting the figures this year is immunity in the population from the last two waves of influenza, alongside vaccination.
"We have had two fairly substantial seasons, which could be driving this delay. Of course the question is, does that mean we're having a delay, or a milder season. That's really kind of uncertain at.........................READ MORE HERE.
SOURCE: CBS NEWS
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