CT passes 100 flu cases, but numbers still unusually low

Flu cases in the state finally crossed 100 for the season, but that’s still incredibly low for this time of year — a fact experts have attributed to mask-wearing and other measures intended to guard against COVID-19.

“The flu season this year essentially didn’t happen,” said Dr. Steven Valassis, medical director of the emergency department at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. “It’s like it never came at all.”

According to the latest update from the state Department of Public Health, a total of 107 people had tested positive for the flu as of March 20. That’s an increase of 11 cases from the previous week. There were no new flu related deaths last week, and there has only been one so far this season.

By comparison, last year, as of March 14, 12,335 people in Connecticut had tested positive for the flu and 70 had died from the illness.

In addition, there were 2,816 flu-related hospitalizations by March 14 last year. This season, only 13 people have been hospitalized because of flu, and there have been no new hospitalizations in several weeks.

Valassis said, in all of the Hartford HealthCare system — of which St. Vincent’s is part — two people have been hospitalized with flu all season. As of Friday, no one was hospitalized because of flu in the season.

He said there were suspicions that this flu season would be mild, as the Southern Hemisphere, which gets the flu first, had few cases.

“What we’re seeing in the Northern Hemisphere is the same thing we saw in the Southern Hemisphere,” Valassis said. “The flu never spiked there because of masking and hand-washing and staying away from other people.”

That was a relief, he said, as there had been some fear that the United States could be hit with a “twindemic,” in which a spike in COVID-19 cases would be combined with a typical flu season.

“That would have been very difficult for hospitals to handle,” Valassis said.

For several months, flu activity in the state has been categorized as “sporadic,” meaning a small number of laboratory-confirmed flu cases or a single laboratoryconfirmed outbreak has been reported, but there is no increase in cases of influenza-like illness.

Nationwide, flu activity has been light as well, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling it “unusually low.”

Flu season can last into May, but Valassis said he doesn’t expect cases to rebound this season. However, he said, this doesn’t mean the contagious respiratory illness is gone for good.

“Flu has been around longer than you or me,” he said. “It is going to make its way back. But we know we can take steps to help prevent it.”

Valassis