Official start of flu season will likely be declared this week: PHAC
CTV
Flu season is just around the corner, according to new data from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s FluWatch reprort.
The official start to the flu season is set to arrive any day now, according to federal health authorities.
The latest data on influenza trends found that the rate of positive cases was 6.8 per cent, which is higher than the seasonal threshold of five per cent positivity.
“If percent positivity remains above this threshold next week, the start of the influenza season will be declared at the national level,” states the latest FluWatch report from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
The report, released early last week, looked specifically at the rate of influenza circulating in the community for week 46 of 2023, Nov. 12 to Nov. 18. During that week, a total of 1,849 laboratory detections of influenza were reported to PHAC, with the vast majority of them being cases of influenza A.
Between the end of August and Nov. 18, a total of 51 laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of influenza have been reported, with 10 of these reported in the most recent week of data alone.
In that same 11-week time period, there were 332 influenza-associated hospitalizations reported across Canada by participating provinces and territories, with 46 per cent of these hospitalizations being among adults aged 65 years or older. There have been 11 influenza-associated deaths reported since the end of August.
The 51 outbreaks of influenza were all driven by influenza A, although one outbreak was mixed with cases of the less common influenza B. Of the 51 outbreaks, 32 took place in long-term care facilities.
