Switzerland’s flu season is gathering pace. Last week the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 459 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases—almost twice as many as the week before and more than double the figure recorded at the same point last year. This corresponds to 5.05 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 2.05 a year earlier.
The data suggest that the onset of the annual flu wave is imminent, though epidemiological indicators remain mixed. Regional disparities are wide. Ticino currently records by far the highest incidence, with 20.9 cases per 100,000 people, followed by Valais (10.5) and Lucerne (8.91). Rates are lowest in Zug (0.75), Schaffhausen (1.13) and Graubünden (1.46).
A similar early surge was last seen in 2022, when the flu season peaked unusually early, in mid-December rather than late January. Yet despite the early start, that winter’s outbreak proved no more severe than in a typical year.
Influenza nevertheless remains a serious public-health threat. In most winters it causes several hundred deaths nationwide, mainly among vulnerable groups, including older people, pregnant women, premature infants and those with chronic illnesses. Only during the winter of 2020–21 did Switzerland escape a flu epidemic, as covid-19 restrictions suppressed transmission.
Covid, by contrast, is now receding. The latest wave appears to have peaked in October, though transmission has not yet fully subsided. The XFG variant—nicknamed “Frankenstein”—currently dominates wastewater surveillance, but the World Health Organisation does not judge it more dangerous than recent earlier strains.
Last week around 5,600 people sought medical care for sudden high fever, cough or sore throat—an early warning that Switzerland’s winter respiratory season is shifting from covid back to influenza.
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FSO flu data (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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