Weekly Flu Report, May 20, 2022

Massachusetts Department of Public Health weekly influenza update

This week's report

View the current weekly flu report.

Highlights

• Influenza severity for Massachusetts is moderate this week.
• The percent of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits in Massachusetts is 3.06%, which is higher than previous seasons and the regional baseline of 2.0%.
• The percent of hospitalizations associated with influenza is 0.92%, which is higher than previous seasons.
• Overall ILI activity is moderate. The Central, Northeast, and Southeast regions are reporting high ILI activity; the Boston, Inner Metro Boston, Outer Metro Boston, and West regions are reporting moderate ILI activity
• Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases increased by 3% 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 48%. See figure 6 and 7 for vaccination data.
• Nationally, seasonal influenza viruses continue to circulate, and activity is increasing in parts of the country.
• 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

Flu vaccination is always the best way to prevent flu and its potentially serious complications.

Date published:	May 20, 2022