Influenza positivity rates drop for the first time this year

A patient receives an influenza vaccine in Mesquite, Texas, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-LM Otero (LM Otero/The Associated Press)

After weeks of steep increases, the positivity rate for influenza testing has fallen for the first time this year, new national data shows.

Updated Friday, the federal Health Infobase dashboard now shows a positivity rate of 25.5 per cent for the week of March 1, down from an all-season high of 27.7 per cent the week prior. The dashboard notes that this change in trend suggests positivity may have reached a peak.

A total of 11,293 cases of influenza were detected in the most recent data, most concentrated among Canadians aged 65 and older, with close to 90 per cent of all cases identified as influenza A, the dominant subtype for the season.

Infobase data shows 164 new outbreaks linked to the virus this week, with a weekly hospitalization rate of 3.5 per 100,000 in the population. The dashboard notes that both outbreaks and hospitalization rates have recently decreased.

This season’s peak so far of 27.7 per cent positivity came later in the year than in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, which saw their highest rates of 24.3 per cent in the week of Nov. 23 and 18.7 per cent in late December, respectively.

According to Infobase, influenza activity is considered “widespread” in the Vancouver coastal and Vancouver Island regions of British Columbia, central zone of Alberta and in Quebec in the areas of Centre-du-Québec, Ouest-du-Québec, Québec et Chaudieres-Appalache and Montréal et Laval.

You can learn more about the latest data on respiratory viruses at CTVNews.ca’s tracker here.