A total of 151 new influenza cases and 1,466 COVID-19 cases have been added this week

In week fourteen, a grand total of 2,297 people fell ill with acute respiratory infections. Overall, 36.4% of all of the new cases involved children. The number of new cases decreased by a third.

Based on information which had been logged during the Sentinel targeted survey, 50% of the samples were positive for influenza-like viruses. The influenza B virus dominates, forming 37.5% of all positive Sentinel samples. 

In total, 151 influenza cases were registered. When compared to last week’s figures, the number of new influenza cases can be seen to have dropped by 38%, with the decline being caused by the Easter break. A total of eighty-five influenza cases were confirmed through laboratory testing, including ten influenza A cases and seventy-five influenza B cases. The Victoria sub-type of influenza B was the dominating virus. Half of all individuals who fell ill with influenza were children of fifteen years or below.

According to information from the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre, thirty patients were hospitalised with influenza. The majority of those patients were over the age of sixty-five. The number of hospitalised children has increased across the year so far. 

In total, 1,221 people have been hospitalised due to influenza since the beginning of the season. A total of 68.4% of those individuals have been over the age of fifty. According to conclusively-validated information on the part of the National Institute for Health Development regarding causes of death, as many as sixty-one people have died due to influenza. Those individuals were aged between nine and 97.

In total, 1,466 COVID-19 cases were confirmed over the course of the week. The number of new cases has decreased in almost all age groups. People over the age of sixty form 31% of the total number of individuals who have fallen ill. The number of registered outbreaks in welfare institutions and the number of cases which can be related to those outbreaks have both increased somewhat in comparison with last week’s figures.

As of Wednesday morning, a total of 170 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, of which fifty-nine required treatment due to the presence of symptomatic COVID-19. This week saw eight deaths being added to the overall total, involving individuals who were between the ages of 74-96. All of those individuals had serious underlying illnesses.
Based on information which had been logged during the targeted survey, infections are currently spreading at a moderate rate, with the spread of the influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses remaining extensive. The declining trend has ceased in hospitalisation cases which are due to influenza and COVID-10.