Flu cases continue to rise ahead of Christmas

The estimated incidence rate of the flu has continued to rise during the last week, but at a slower rate than the previous week.

According to health officials, the incidence rate in Catalonia is now up to 766 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up from the previous week's 421, which was then a multiple of 2.5x that of the prior week.

The rise in cases began seven weeks ago, earlier than usual and in a more marked way.

Health officials have called this the "worst" flu season in the past 15 years, with an "atypical" trend when comparing infections of the last 15 years.

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency, Jacobo Mendioroz, deputy director general of epidemiological surveillance at the Catalan Public Health Agency, said the incidence is “much higher than those of the last 15 years.”

Public Health estimates that the peak of infections will come next week, coinciding with Christmas, although they also point out that the social interactions of the holidays could cause this peak to extend.

Influenza is the predominant virus, with 66% of the positives in the samples analyzed for respiratory viruses and a total of 406 per 100,000 inhabitants, when the previous week the rate was 310.

Between December 8 and 14, there were a total of 32,920 flu diagnoses given in primary care centres, up from 25,158 the previous week.

The number of diagnoses this week has already exceeded the peak of the three previous seasons: 293 cases per 100,000 inhabitants last year, 191.9 the previous year, and 133.29 in the 2022-2023 season.

The distribution of viruses shows influenza as the most predominant (66% of samples), followed by rhinovirus (10.8%), human coronavirus and RSV (4.7%, each).

Vaccination coverage against flu is 66% for people over 80 years old and 53% for people aged between 70 and 79. For Covid-19, vaccination coverage is 55% for people over 80 and 39% for people between 70 and 79.

In children between 6 months and five years old, coverage against flu is 40%. Regarding RSV, the cumulative coverage is 94% for those born between April and September; and 69.6% for those born between October and May, which represents a total coverage of 88.3%.