Two states are reporting moderate flu activity and three are reporting low levels of activity, according to the CDC's FluView report published Feb. 25.
Seven CDC updates:
1. No states reported very high or high flu activity. Oklahoma and Wyoming reported moderate flu activity, while Idaho, Minnesota and Mississippi reported low activity. The remaining states reported minimal flu activity, while Washington, D.C., reported insufficient data.
2. The percentage of visits to an outpatient provider for respiratory illness was 1.5 percent for the week ending Feb. 19, up from 1.4 percent the previous week, but still below the national baseline of 2.5 percent.
3. For the week ending Feb. 19, 1,420 lab-confirmed flu patients were hospitalized, up from the week before. The cumulative hospitalization rate was 4.9 per 100,000 population, up from 4.7 per 100,000 the prior week.
4. Of all specimens tested in a clinical lab, 4.2 percent were positive for the flu for the week ending Feb. 19, up from 3 percent the previous week.
5. Nationwide, 0.4 percent of long-term care facilities reported more than one flu-positive test among residents for the week, the same as the previous week.
6. The national flu, pneumonia and/or COVID-19 mortality rate is 20.4 percent, which sits above the epidemic threshold of 7.2 percent. Among the 3,185 deaths reported for the week, 2,587 had COVID-19 and 12 had flu listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death.
7. One new flu-associated pediatric death was reported, bringing the pediatric flu deaths total for the 2021-22 season to six.