Flu cases across Canada reached a three-year high over the holidays but have since stabilized or decreased heading into the new year, new figures released Friday showed.
The latest national influenza data accounts for the holiday period of Dec. 14 to Jan. 3.
During the week of Christmas, Health Canada said the percentage of positive tests for influenza reached 33.3 per cent, “the highest value recorded in the past three seasons.”
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The following week, the rate of tests coming back positive for flu decreased to just over 27 per cent.
Health Canada said the most recent week of data that ended Jan. 3 showed “indicators of influenza activity were high but were either stable or decreasing.”
It said the highly infectious and deadly H3N2 strain was “predominant” among influenza A cases detected in laboratory samples.
Cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have risen since the last update on Dec. 19, with 3.4 per cent of tests returning positive, while COVID-19 cases also rose to 5.3 per cent positive tests.
“Indicators of RSV activity continue to increase slowly and some indicators of COVID-19 activity increased,” Health Canada said.
Hospitalizations have remained stable since the last update on Dec. 19, with 12.4 patients per 100,000 of the population reported per week.
More to come…
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