Seasonal flu continues to gain ground
Keystone-SDA
New data from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) shows that flu cases doubled in Switzerland between mid and late December last year.
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In the last week of December 2024, 12.71 cases of influenza per 100,000 people were reported to the FOPH. The wave began three weeks earlier.
At the same time, the number of reported Covid-19 cases fell steadily from 7.74 to 5.42 cases per 100,000 people in the last three weeks of December. The Covid-19 wave seems to have passed its peak. In absolute figures, more than twice as many cases of influenza as Covid-19 were recorded in the last week of December.
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Seasonal flu on the rise and Covid on the wane in Switzerland
These trends have also been observed for respiratory viruses, including influenza and Covid-19, in wastewater in most regions of Switzerland. Around 26.4% of viruses detected at the end of December were influenza viruses, and 10.9% were coronaviruses.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variant most frequently detected in wastewater is XEC. It currently accounts for around half of all SARS-CoV-2 viral load detected.
Adapted from French by DeepL/sb
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