This week’s full report covers flu, Covid-19 and RSV in all nine Northeastern states, plus measles updates from New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Try it free for 7 days, then $5 a month. Cancel online anytime.
Influenza-like illness
Flu is rising quickly in the Northeast by most metrics. Emergency department (ED) visits rose from 1.2% to 1.8%, the second straight week with a gain of about 0.6 points. Flu test positivity rose from 8.0% to 10.9%. Outpatient influenza-like illness rose in all nine states.
Hospital admissions for influenza also rose from 2.7 to 3.2 per 100,000, the sixteenth straight weekly rise. ED visits and admissions are both about six times as high as this time last year. The region is about three weeks ahead of last season.
New Jersey leads the region on most measures: 2.3% of ED visits, 4.7% of outpatient visits and 4.1 admissions per 100,000. Rhode Island had the biggest jump, from 0.8% to 1.9% of ED visits. It's a small state, so I don't read too much into that.
One interesting bit of analysis: CDC estimates that flu activity is actually declining across much of the Northeast, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I don't see that in the data just yet, so we'll see!
