Influenza has been on the decline for three weeks...resurgence embers in the cold
Feb 05, 2025
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According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 5th, 36.5 suspected flu patients visited 300 sample monitoring medical institutions in the fourth week of this year (January 19-25). This is down from the previous week (57.7 people) and has been on the decline for three weeks since peaking at 99.8 in the first week of this year. As of the fourth week, it is more than in 2023 (25.6) and 2024 (30.3).
The flu virus detection rate in the fourth week was also 36.4%, down 9.2 percentage points in one week, but it is still higher than a year ago (25.8%).
In the sample monitoring of inpatients at 221 hospital-level or higher medical institutions nationwide, the number of flu inpatients in the fourth week of this year was 737, down 40.5% from the previous week (1,239).
By age, there were many suspected flu patients at 7-12 years of age (71.4 per 1,000 people) at 4 weeks. This was followed by 1 to 6 years old (51.8 people), 13 to 18 years old (50.9), and 19 to 49 years old (46.4 people).
Statistics for the Lunar New Year holiday period (the last week of January) have not yet been released, but it is expected that the decline will continue until the start of school for students.
However, there is still room for the continued cold weather to act as a spark for the resurgence of the flu, with morning temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius in most parts of the country on the 5th. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked high-risk groups to be vaccinated against the flu even now.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
