Flu season has ended a month earlier than usual and was especially mild, suggests CDC data

Flu season appears to have come to an early end, official data suggests — as doctors say it was ‘mild’ compared to previous years.

CDC figures show that for three straight weeks reports of flu-like illness have been below the threshold for an active flu season, which usually officially ends in May.

Other indicators like hospitalizations and patient testing are also low or declining — with no state reporting a high or very high numbers of flu cases.

It suggests that the 2023 to 2024 flu season is now over.

The above shows the flu season 2022 to 2023, left, and 2019 to 2020, right, the data for this season was slightly above that from last year, but below levels from 2019 to 2020

The most recent flu season is shown as the red line alongside previous seasons

Dr Jay Varkey, an infectious diseases physician at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, said their units felt ‘strained but never over-capacity’.

‘It felt more like a traditional respiratory virus season than when we had massive upswings of Covid confounding it,’ he said.

Overall, the CDC estimates there were at least 34million illnesses, 380,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu.

That was actually slightly above the levels the previous season, when there were an estimated 31million illnesses, 360,000 hospitalization and 21,000 deaths.

But below the figures from the season before the pandemic, when 36million illnesses, 390,000 hospitalizations and 25,000 deaths from flu were estimated.

Flu season normally lasts until May in the United States, after starting in October and peaking around December to February.