Weekly Flu Report, February 18, 2022

Massachusetts Department of Public Health weekly influenza update

This week's report

View the current weekly flu report.

Highlights

Highlights from this week’s report:

• Influenza severity for Massachusetts is low this week.
• The percent of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits in Massachusetts is 0.52%, which is lower than the regional baseline of 2.0%.
• The percent of hospitalizations associated with influenza is 0.04%, which is lower than two of the previous seasons, but comparable to last season in the same week.
• Overall ILI activity is minimal. All regions are reporting minimal ILI activity. 
• 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.
• Nationally, sporadic influenza activity continues. In some areas, influenza activity is increasing.
• 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:	February 18, 2022