Alberta infant dies of influenza

According to Alberta's online dashboard, there have been 16,000 cases of influenza since the beginning of the season last August.

Alberta’s latest figures tracking respiratory illnesses show a child less than a year old has died of the flu.

News of the death came from a Thursday update of figures on flu cases on Alberta’s respiratory virus dashboard.

It’s unclear what the baby’s gender was or where the child was located.

The infant’s death marks the first death of a person younger than 20 in the province this flu season.

Since mid-August, 258 Albertans have died of the flu in the deadliest flu season in recent memory.

In the same time frame, more than 3,800 Albertans with influenza have been hospitalized, and nearly 300 of those patients have required intensive care.

Those patients are among the more than 16,000 that have been infected with the flu this season.

Provincial data shows only one in five Albertans has been vaccinated.