Once again, flu activity remained minimal across Indiana for the week ended April 3. As flu usually declines in April and May, it’s unlikely Indiana will see any notable increase in rates this season. Indiana State Department of Health graphic
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Weekly flu surveillance reports from this year and previous years can be found on the Indiana State Department of Health website at in.gov/isdh/22104.htm.
INDIANAPOLIS — As it has been for all of 2021 so far, flu activity across Indiana remains minimal.
With seven weeks left in the flu-monitoring season, Hoosiers are increasingly unlikely to see any significant rise in flu, meaning 2020-21 will likely go down as one of the most minor years ever.
In the 27th week of statewide flu surveillance, the Indiana State Department of Health once again rated the spread of influenza as “minimal,” the lowest rating.
For the week ending April 3, the state reported 391 incidents of “influenza-like illness” at monitoring sites. That brings the 2020-21 flu season total to 12,488.
Influenza-like illness reports were up slightly to 0.81% from 0.78% a week ago at outpatient monitoring sites, but that still remains in the “minimal” rating.
At this time of year, flu activity is usually in decline as the weather warms, with reports ranging about 2-3% in recent years on their way to under-baseline reports in later April and May.
No new deaths were reported this week, with the death toll attributable to flu sitting at just five this year. Indiana typically averages about 150 flu deaths per year.
State health officials have noted that interventions being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as masking, social distancing and staying home when ill, are likely to have beneficial impacts in reducing the spread of influenza.
The state also notes that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting whether Hoosiers visit health care providers if they are sick or if they’re riding out illnesses at home without seeking treatment or professional opinion.
Flu reports at urgent care centers and emergency rooms also increased a little in the past week, rising to 0.72% of reports, up from 0.63% a week ago.
That rate usually runs about 2-4% at this time of year, although was still high at about 6.5% in the unusually bad 2019-20 flu season.
Indiana is nearing the end of flu surveillance season, as the state monitors for 20 weeks into the new year, which will take reports through May 22 this year.
At this point in the year, flu numbers generally are in rapid decline as warmer weather reduces the number of illnesses attributable to flu.
By the start of May, the state is usually below the 2% threshold seen as a baseline, with numbers declining further afterward.
Outside of a few weeks early in the 2020-21 season that hit “low” levels of flu report, the second-lowest rating, Indiana has spent most of this year in “minimal” territory.
Flu activity was low during the final months of 2020 even as COVID-19 cases spiked to record highs, but they likewise remained low even when COVID-19 cases rapidly fell after the turn of the new year.
Since COVID-19 cases are definitively identified with a test that reads out positive or negative, there’s little ground for coronavirus cases to be confused or mislabeled as flu and vice versa.
Health officials have attributed the massive reduction in flu primarily to better hygiene practices, masking and social distancing, and from an increased directive for people to stay home from work and school when sick, which reduces the opportunities for communicable flu to spread from person to person.
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