Influenza numbers compared with confirmed COVID-19 cases
By GILLIAN SLADE on April 28, 2020.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade As of Monday morning… Even at this late stage of the influenza season there are still new cases and hospitalizations. In the last week there were two cases of influenza that required hospitalization in the south zone and 24 across the province, according to the latest AHS report. The recent FluWatch report, issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada, gives numbers for the whole country that provide an interesting comparison between influenza and COVID-19. FluWatch indicates there were 55,194 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza in Canada between Aug. 25, 2019 and April 4, 2020. There were 11 outbreaks reported, nine of which were in long-term care facilities and two in acute care. A total of 4.3 per cent were hospitalized with flu in Canada (below you will see this is identical to those hospitalized in Alberta for COVID). In Alberta, 18 per cent, and in the south zone, 11.65 per cent were hospitalized for influenza. There were 290 admitted to ICU with flu, 0.5 per cent of all cases for the whole of Canada. In Alberta data is not provided for ICU admissions. Flu-related deaths across Canada were 103 or 0.2 per cent. In Alberta the death rate was 0.46 per cent and 0.72 per cent for the south zone only. COVID-19 numbers: Alberta Health’s data shows 4.3 per cent of those with COVID-19 need hospitalization, 1.1 per cent end up in ICU and there is a 1.6 per cent death rate. In the first half of April the daily number of people in hospital across Alberta with COVID-19 was hovering around 47. The last two weeks that number has climbed to the mid 60s and then on Sunday jumped to 83. The total number of people hospitalized in Alberta since the COVID-19 outbreak is 193. The accumulated number of those in an ICU is 49. 13-12
