As flu deaths finally slow, the season’s death toll is emerging

This year’s late flu season has turned out to be the deadliest in recent memory. Now, as test positivity rates have finally come down, and weekly deaths are starting to slow, the overall death toll is emerging.

At least 1,504 people died from complications of the flu by the 13th week of this year, the week ending Mar. 29, according to the most recent weekly respiratory virus report from the California Department of Public Health.

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Tragically, 22 of those deaths were children, more pediatric flu deaths than in any of the previous six respiratory virus seasons. Surveillance of pediatric flu deaths did not begin until 2003, but since then, the deadliest flu season for children was 2008-2009, when 37 children reportedly died in the state.

Since 2000, the deadliest flu season nationally was in 2017-18, when an estimated 52,000 deaths around the country were attributed to the influenza virus, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC estimates that this season there have been 25,000 flu deaths nationally, and the deaths of 168 children have been reported.

Flu season typically runs from the fall through the winter, and typically peaks some time between December and February. This year, the virus started to peak in December, but positivity rates continued to rise and remained high through February, staying higher for longer than in other recent seasons.

When the coronavirus pandemic started, and social distancing precautions came with it, flu was also suppressed. Flu deaths were at record lows in the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons, but since then, flu has returned as a threat, especially to the state’s elderly residents.

Some experts point to record-low vaccination rates as a contributing factor to the high death toll this year.