While total flu activity this season has been high, this week’s flu activity declined slightly.
According to the CDC’s Week 7 Surveillance Report, the amount of specimens tested for flu has decreased by more than 2,000 - from 16,934 positive specimens last week to 14,657 positive specimens this week.
While 13 pediatric deaths occurred this week, data from the 2017-2018 flu season indicates that the exact same amount of deaths that occurred during week 7 of flu season 2 years ago.
According to the report, the overall severity of the flu, as indicated by the total number of hospitalizations and deaths, are “not high at this point in the season”.
The percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and flu are below the epidemic threshold of 7.3 percent, coming in at only 6.8 percent .
