Weekly Flu Report, February 14, 2020

Massachusetts Department of Public Health weekly influenza update

This week's report

View the weekly flu report.

Highlights

• Influenza severity for Massachusetts has increased to very high this week.
• The percentage of influenza-like illness visits for Massachusetts has continued to increase and remains higher than the previous two years in the same week.
• Overall influenza-like illness activity for Massachusetts remains high this week. All regions are reporting high ILI activity.
• The percent of influenza-associated hospitalizations in Massachusetts has continued to increase in recent weeks.
• In the 2019-2020 flu season, more influenza B than influenza A positive specimens have been reported by hospitals and outpatient facilities in Massachusetts.
• The number of influenza positive laboratory tests reported to MDPH decreased this week by 2% compared to last week. The number of influenza A positive laboratory tests reported to MDPH increased by 16% while the number of influenza B positive laboratory tested decreased by 14%, compared to last week.
• All influenza strains that have been characterized in Massachusetts this season to date are covered by the current influenza vaccine.
• Nationally, influenza-like illness activity remains elevated, and approximately equal numbers of influenza A and influenza B have been reported so far this season, with continued increases in influenza A in recent weeks.
• There have been fifteen confirmed cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19, previously 2019-nCoV) in the U.S. and one case identified in Massachusetts.  For the most up to date information on COVID-19 please visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.
• 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.

Flu activity remains elevated. 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:	February 14, 2020