Weekly Flu Report, April 1, 2022

Massachusetts Department of Public Health weekly influenza update

This week's report

• View the current weekly flu report (PDF)

Highlights

• Influenza severity for Massachusetts is low this week.
• The percent of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits in Massachusetts is 1.51%, which is lower than the regional baseline of 2.0%.
• The percent of hospitalizations associated with influenza is 0.34%, which is lower than two of the previous seasons, but higher than the last season in the same week.
• Overall ILI activity is minimal, but increasing. The Southeast region is reporting low ILI activity; all other regions are reporting minimal ILI activity.
• Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases increased by 45% this week. More influenza A than influenza B positive specimens have been reported by hospitals and outpatient facilities in Massachusetts. For influenza A, the predominant strain is currently H3N2.
• The number of influenza vaccine doses administered this flu season is comparable to last season in the same week. The vaccination rate for all ages is 47%. See figure 6 and 7 for vaccination data.
• Nationally, influenza activity is still highest in the central and south-central regions of the country, but appears to be declining slightly in these regions. Influenza activity is increasing in the northeast and northwest regions.
• Additional statewide and national data including geographic spread, ILI activity, and pneumonia and influenza mortality are available at CDC’s FluView Weekly Report at https://www.cdc.gov/fluview/index.html and FluView Interactive https://www.cdc.gov/fluview/overview/fluview-interactive.html.
• Statewide and national COVID data are available at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting and https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

It’s not too late to get vaccinated. Flu vaccination is always the best way to prevent flu and its potentially serious complications.

Date published:	April 1, 2022