Long flu season winds down in US
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. flu season appears to be over. It was long, but it wasn’t unusually severe.
Last week, for the third straight week, medical visits for flu-like illnesses dipped below the threshold for what’s counted as an active flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Other indicators, like hospitalizations and patient testing, also show low and declining activity. No state is reporting a high amount of flu activity. Only New England is seeing the kind of patient traffic associated with an active flu season right now, but even there flu impact is considered modest.
Since the beginning of October, there have been at least 34 million illnesses, 380,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu, according to CDC estimates. The agency said 148 children have died of flu.