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The flu wave has hit Austria particularly early and particularly hard this year. Most recently, an incidence for the first week of December was calculated at 4338. This corresponds to 394,000 new infections. The number of new infections in Vienna climbed to almost 34,000 last week.
A record 25,200 cases of influenza or flu-like illness had already been reported in the first week of December. For all of Austria, the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) most recently calculated an incidence of 4338 such infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
In Vienna, the number of infections in recent weeks has risen significantly from 23,150 to 25,200 and now to 33,950 (fluctuation range +/-2150). These are new record values measured against the data published online since 2009. The previous peak was 19,700 new cases in January 2017, when the massive flu epidemic also led to a significant increase in the number of deaths to as many as 2,340 per week – a level not reached again until the Corona pandemic.
This year, the flu wave hit much earlier than usual. In the past, the influenza season peaked in January or February, i.e. after the Christmas holidays. However, the current situation had been expected by medical experts after two winters without an influenza wave and after the discontinuation of almost all Corona measures.
The flu reporting service of the city of Vienna calculates the new cases from the number of influenza infections and “real” flu reported by doctors. AGES collects these and uses them to make an extrapolation for Austria. This shows a similarly rapid increase in flu cases. The most recently calculated incidence is significantly higher than the values reported for the past five years. One can hardly speak of a regular season due to lockdowns and other Corona measures in the past two years.
- source: krone.at/picture:
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