Twelve states reported high or moderate flu activity for the week ending Dec. 11, according to data from the CDC's FluView report published Dec. 17.
New Mexico reported high activity for the sixth consecutive week. New Jersey also reported high flu activity. In Georgia, flu activity was moderate for the fifth week in a row. Arkansas, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia also reported moderate flu activity for the week of Dec. 11.
Meanwhile, 19 states reported low flu activity and the remaining states reported minimal flu activity. Washington, D.C., reported insufficient data.
Six other CDC updates:
1. The percentage of visits to an outpatient provider for illness was 2.7 percent for the week ending Dec. 11, up slightly from the previous week and above the national baseline of 2.5 percent.
2. From Dec. 5-11, 1,057 lab-confirmed flu patients were hospitalized.
3. Of all specimens tested in a clinical lab, 3.5 percent were positive for flu virus, up from 2.6 percent the previous week.
4. No pediatric flu deaths have been reported for the 2021-22 flu season.
5. Nationwide, 0.5 percent of long-term care facilities reported more than one flu-positive test among residents for the week ending Dec. 11, up from 0.4 the previous week.
6. The national flu, pneumonia and/or COVID-19 mortality rate is 17.4 percent, which sits above the epidemic threshold of 6.6 percent. Among the 3,330 deaths reported for the week, 2,569 had COVID-19 listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate.
Read the full report here.