Not surprisingly, it appears as though public health measures to control the spread of COVID-19 have effectively eliminated the incidence of influenza and other respiratory illnesses in the province as well.

There has only been one new lab-confirmed case of influenza in the province in the last month.

By mid-April, there were 706 lab-confirmed cases of influenza in the province this season, including 90 hospitalizations, 17 ICU admissions, and nine deaths. Of those cases, 56.3 per cent had not received a flu shot while 14.3 per cent reported getting their flu shot this year. The remaining 29.5 percent had an unknown immunization status.

Most of those cases were in the Eastern Health region with the remainder of cases relatively evenly split among the other health authorities.

On the national front, the influenza season ended abruptly in week 12, with the percentage of positive tests for influenza at the lowest level, 0.13 per cent, recorded for the past nine seasons.