U.S. COVID cases down but flu continues with 2nd peak activity

Flu cases rise again, while COVID takes a back seat It's an unusual winter for respiratory illnesses. The flu is peaking twice: once in early January and again in February. Meanwhile, it's the mildest COVID winter since the pandemic began. NPR

This winter's COVID-19 surge has been mild.

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Winter illnesses return with a vengeance

"This year's winter wave is low compared to previous winters," says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "This is the smallest winter wave we've had since the pandemic began."

The weekly rate at which people are getting hospitalized for COVID this winter peaked at about 4 per 100,000, compared with about 8 per 100,000 last season, about 11 per 100,000 in the 2022-2023 season and 35 per 100,000 in the 2021-2022 season, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

The bad news trend this year is the flu. This year's flu season started unusually early and has been spreading at high levels around the country. And now, it looks like the U.S. is experiencing a second peak of flu activity this winter.

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