A total of 85,912 hospital visits for flu-like illnesses were reported last week, the most for the period in four years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that it expects the peak to be around the Lunar New Year holiday.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said hospital visits for flu-like illnesses increased slightly last week, with outpatient visits rising 1.38 percent and emergency visits up 12 percent.
The numbers are higher than in the same week of the past three years, Lee said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
Of the respiratory viruses identified at contracted laboratories in the past four weeks, adenoviruses accounted for 41.9 percent, followed by flu viruses at 12 percent and human parainfluenza viruses at 15.1 percent, while respiratory syncytial (RSV) and COVID-19 viruses were also detected, she said.
Twenty severe flu complications and one flu-related death were reported last week, she said, adding that 19 people among them had not been vaccinated this flu season.
CDC physician Liu Yu-cheng (劉裕誠) said the person who died was an unvaccinated man in his 60s with cancer.
He had cold-like symptoms in the middle of this month and was found unconsciousness with shortness of breath a week later, Liu said.
He was rushed to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with influenza A (H3N2), and died of pneumonia and respiratory failure the same day, he said.
There were 326 COVID-19 hospitalizations reported last week, up from 259 the previous week, Lee said, adding that cases have been increasing for two weeks.
Ninety-nine percent of the people who were hospitalized and 97 percent of the 37 who died last week had not received the new XBB.1.5-adapated COVID-19 vaccine, she said.
Among the COVID-19 deaths, the youngest case was an unvaccinated woman in her 50s with diabetes who contracted the virus in the middle of October and had taken anti-viral medicine, Liu said.
She was later admitted to an intensive care unit with respiratory failure and died about 1.5 months after being diagnosed with the disease, he said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that recent cases of flu-like illnesses have been caused by multiple respiratory pathogens, not the seasonal flu, and the outbreak is expected to peak in early February.
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 last week was the highest in 17 weeks, while the number of deaths from the virus was the highest in nine weeks, Lo said, adding that the peak of the local outbreak is expected to be in the middle to the end of next month.
“The percentage of local cases infected with the new JN.1 variant has increased slightly and it is expected to continue increasing, becoming the dominant variant in the middle of January” Lo said. “We still urge people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
CDC data showed that more than 6.25 million doses of government-funded flu vaccine had been administered this flu season as of Monday, but the coverage rate among elderly people, including long-term care facility residents, was only about 51.5 percent, slightly lower than the goal of 55 percent, so with about 320,000 government-funded doses remaining, the eligible recipients should get vaccinated soon, the CDC said.
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