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Jan. 9, 2023 — New flu cases in the U.S. continue to decline as 2022 ends with flu-related doctor’s office and hospital visits falling for the fifth straight week, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The good news is that the number of hospital admissions for flu and flu-like illnesses has held steady.
According to the CDC Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network, outpatient visits for ILI accounted for 5.4% of all visits to healthcare providers during the week of December 25-31.That’s down from the previous week’s 6.0% and the seasonal peak of 7.5% in late November, according to the latest data from the CDC’s flu division. FluView report.
The CDC’s surveillance network defines influenza-like illness as fever plus cough or sore throat, not laboratory-confirmed influenza, so the data includes other respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). But the language in the FluView report makes it clear that the CDC is focusing on the flu.
State-level data confirmed the national decline: Only 12 jurisdictions had “very high” flu activity in the week of Dec. 25-31, compared with 24 the week before. (Jurisdictions include the 50 states, territories, New York City and the District of Columbia.) Another downgrade showed the number of very active metro areas falling from 59 to 37, the CDC said.
Hospitalizations held around 19,000 for the second week in a row after a two-week slump, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Protection Platform, despite a drop in outpatient visits.Another metric that hasn’t shown improvement is the proportion of deaths from flu, which was higher on Dec. 25-31 (1.63%) than in either of the preceding two weeks (1.53% and 1.6%), according to the National Center. Used for health statistics included in CDC reports.
The 2022-23 flu season so far has a total death toll of approximately 14,000, 230,000 hospitalizations and approximately 22 million illnesses. Of the deaths reported in the most recent week, 13 were children, bringing the season’s total to 74, the CDC said.
