Publication schedule: During summer months, this weekly respiratory illness report is available to paid subscribers. Beginning in mid-October with the onset of flu season, everyone receives the national overview for free, while paid subscribers receive bonus regional reports with state-by-state details to help you understand what’s happening locally.

Respiratory Diseases

Influenza-like illness

Flu activity remains well below the threshold for the start of flu season.

After an uptick in August with the start of school, outpatient visits for influenza-like illness have held roughly steady (declining ever-so-slightly) for the past several weeks, and now sit at 1.7% of all trips to the doctor’s office.

Outpatient ILI rates continue to hold steady across all groups, ranging from 0.7% for those 65+ years to 5.1% for those aged 0-4 years.

Wastewater activity is very low and stable in most states. There have been very minor increases in wastewater in Alaska, and Louisiana, which may just be blips.

Trips to the emergency department also remain very low for flu, with most states well under 0.5% of visits to the ED due to flu.

COVID-19

Activity continues to decrease across much of the country, with national wastewater declining to moderate levels. Rates are still elevated, but we are on the other side of the wave. Emergency department visits for Covid continue to fall, and are down to 1.0% of all ED visits.