Only 32 people test positive for flu in CT this season, DPH says
COVID’s second wave is still rising in Connecticut but the state continues to have a much weaker flu season than normal.
On Friday, the state Department of Public Health posted Connecticut’s latest flu numbers, which found that, as of Jan. 2, 32 people had tested positive for flu in Connecticut, 11 people had been hospitalized with the illness and only one person had died.
The rate of flu-like illness also fell this week from the previous week — from 1.17 percent to .95 percent.
This is unusually low activity for this point in the flu season, health officials said. For instance, at this same time last year, the state had already seen 1,613 positive influenza tests. In addition, 472 people had been hospitalized because of the illness and seven people had died from fluassociated deaths.
Flu activity in the state has been classified as “sporadic,” meaning a small number of laboratory-confirmed flu cases or a single laboratory-confirmed outbreak has been reported, but there is no increase in cases of influenza-like illness. Again, at this point in last season, flu was already widespread.
Earlier this flu season, doctors and other experts said the low flu activity wasn’t surprising, as many of the measures people are taking to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 — such as mask-wearing, social distancing and regular hand washing — can also help prevent the flu.
Connecticut isn’t alone in its relatively mild flu season. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention report that flu activity in all states is either minimal, low or
moderate. In no states is it classified as high or very high.