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Health
Craig Helmstetter

COVID-19, RSV and flu: Up, up and way up

COVID-19 levels measured in the state’s wastewater are higher than they have been since February 2023

Graph of hospital admissions from respiratory viruses in Minnesota
Hospital admissions due to influenza jumped dramatically in the last week of December according to Minnesota Department of Health data.
APM Research Lab

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New data released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Health shows hospital admissions for COVID-19 and RSV have again increased, and flu-related hospitalizations are soaring.  

The latest confirmed hospitalization data shows notable increases of just over 30 percent in hospital admissions due to both COVID-19 and RSV during the last full week of December. Hospitalizations due to influenza jumped by about 150 percent during that same week.  

The number of flu-related hospitalizations in the state, nearly 600, far exceeds last year’s weekly peak of 282. The health department’s preliminary data for the week ending on Jan. 4 shows 722 people hospitalized due to influenza. Preliminary data is typically revised higher as more data comes in. 

Readily accessible data from the department goes back even farther for the Twin Cities seven-county region (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties). That series shows that the 366 hospitalized with flu in the week ending on Dec. 28 is the region’s highest since the peak of the 2022-2023 flu season, when 369 Minnesotans were hospitalized in the last full week of November. 

The latest data pushes Minnesota into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” activity category for influenza, up from being categorized as having “low” flu activity just one week earlier. Minnesota is currently in that category with 16 other states. Twenty-three states are in the “very high” category, leaving only ten — including neighboring North and South Dakota — in the minimal to moderate categories.  

While hospitalizations due to influenza now outpace those due to COVID-19, the latter is also on the rise. More than twice as many Minnesotans ended up in the hospital with COVID-19 during the last week in December as was the case during the last week in November.  

Worse, according to the latest data from the University of Minnesota’s ongoing Wastewater Surveillance Study, COVID-19 levels measured in the state’s wastewater are higher than they have been since February of 2023. Increases in detection of COVID-19 in wastewater typically precedes increases in cases and hospitalizations. 

Hospitalizations due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which mainly impacts infants and toddlers but can also be a problem among older adults, are also up, with 126 admissions in the last week of December, but remain lower than last year’s weekly peak of 215.