Welcome

Welcome to New York Flu Watch, a resource you can use to follow influenza activity across New York State and New York City in near real time. This page brings together multiple open data sources to give you a comprehensive view of laboratory-confirmed influenza cases, emergency department utilization, hospitalizations, mortality, and vaccination coverage. By drawing from statewide and city-level surveillance systems, you can explore how influenza patterns differ across regions, populations, and phases of the season. Whether you are making operational decisions, planning prevention efforts, or simply trying to stay informed, the analyses presented here are intended to help you interpret current trends with clarity and context.

Data Overview

You will find that the data presented on this page represent several complementary surveillance streams, each providing a different perspective on the burden and distribution of influenza. Laboratory-confirmed case data give you insight into virologically confirmed infections, while emergency department and hospitalization data highlight how many people are seeking care for influenza-related illness. Mortality data, drawn from federal vital statistics systems, show you how influenza contributes to severe outcomes across age groups and regions. Vaccination coverage data, collected through national surveys, allow you to assess how well communities are protected as the season unfolds. Together, these datasets form a layered picture of influenza activity, although each dataset has its own structure, strengths, and limitations.

How to Use These Data

You can refer to these data to understand where influenza activity is most prominent, how quickly it is increasing or decreasing, and which groups or geographic areas may be experiencing greater burden. By reviewing the maps, time trends, and age-stratified analyses, you can identify patterns that may warrant closer attention—such as early spikes in activity, regional disparities, or notable changes in healthcare use. These displays also help you compare the current season with historical patterns, an essential step in determining whether observed activity is typical or unusually elevated. Public health departments, hospital systems, and community organizations may find these outputs useful for situational awareness, resource planning, vaccination outreach, and communication with the public. Individuals can also use these data to make informed decisions about preventive behaviors, healthcare-seeking, and vaccination timing.

Why Are These Data Important?

Understanding influenza trends is crucial for protecting both individual and community health, and these data provide you with actionable insight into the timing, spread, and severity of each flu season. The data help you see when influenza begins circulating, how rapidly it grows, and which areas or groups experience higher levels of illness. These patterns support critical planning and response actions, such as reinforcing vaccination messaging, preparing healthcare facilities for increased demand, and identifying communities where additional outreach may be needed. Because influenza varies from year to year—and because vaccination uptake, population immunity, and circulating strains change over time—having timely and transparent data is essential for making informed policy and operational decisions. By following these indicators throughout the season, you can stay aware of emerging risks and understand how influenza is affecting New Yorkers in real time.

What Do These Data Show?

The figures and tables on this page show you how influenza is manifesting across multiple dimensions, including counts, rates, severity, and geographic variation. Laboratory-confirmed case data show where reported infections are occurring and how those patterns shift across weeks, regions, and influenza types. Emergency department visit and hospitalization data highlight the clinical burden of influenza-like illness on healthcare systems, an important marker of severity and system stress that may rise even when testing is incomplete. Mortality data show how influenza contributes to severe outcomes, allowing you to explore differences across age groups and regions. Vaccination coverage data give you a sense of how well-protected various populations may be, and whether coverage levels align with seasonal risk. Taken together, these outputs present a detailed and interconnected view of the influenza landscape.

What Do These Data Not Show?

Although these data provide valuable insights, they do not reflect the full extent of influenza activity in the population. Laboratory-confirmed cases capture only individuals who sought care, were tested, and received results that were reported to surveillance systems; many mild or moderate influenza infections occur outside of healthcare settings and are therefore not counted. Emergency department and hospitalization data reflect only the subset of people who became ill enough to seek urgent or inpatient care, so they do not represent all influenza-like illness in the community. Mortality data report deaths in which influenza or related conditions were identified on death certificates, but they do not capture all influenza-associated deaths, especially in cases where influenza was not tested for or recorded. Vaccination coverage data are based on survey responses and may be subject to recall error, nonresponse bias, or sampling variability. For these reasons, you should consider these data as highly useful indicators—but not complete measures—of influenza activity.

Implications for Public Health Practice

Using these data, you can better anticipate the needs of your community, guide prevention strategies, and strengthen preparedness for periods of increased respiratory illness. Trends in laboratory-confirmed cases and emergency department utilization can help you identify when activity is accelerating and when interventions such as vaccination messaging, testing reminders, or enhanced infection prevention practices may be most effective. Regional and age-specific analyses can help you target resources to populations or areas experiencing disproportionate impact, while vaccination coverage data can support efforts to reduce disparities in protection. Mortality patterns can inform high-level planning by highlighting groups that may be at increased risk for severe outcomes. By integrating these data into ongoing monitoring efforts, you can support timely public health action, promote community resilience, and enhance the overall response to influenza across New York State.

Executive Summary¹

This briefing summarizes influenza trends for the 2025-2026 season, which was characterized by an intense and early peak in viral transmission driven primarily by Influenza A. Statewide, the season concluded with a cumulative total of 445,545 laboratory-confirmed cases, corresponding to an incidence rate of 2,227.45 cases per 100,000 population. Geographic analysis of these cumulative data indicates that the highest incidence rates were concentrated in the Long Island (2,881.67 per 100,000) and Mid-Hudson (2,728.91 per 100,000) regions. This regional distribution is consistent with county-level data, where Putnam (3,749.44 per 100,000) and Westchester (3,123.23 per 100,000) counties reported some of the highest rates in the state.

The season’s epidemiological curve shows a rapid escalation of cases beginning in November 2025 and culminating in a substantial peak during the week ending December 20, 2025, which saw 75,788 total reported cases, overwhelmingly of Influenza A. To place this in context, case counts during the season were substantially higher than in recent non-pandemic years. For instance, the total cases reported in CDC Week 53 of the current season (37,865 cases) were more than ten times higher than in the same week of the 2014-2015 season (3,445 cases). Following the primary peak, a secondary, smaller wave of Influenza B was observed in the spring, with activity peaking at 11,810 cases during the week ending March 28, 2026, before declining to low levels by late May.

Syndromic surveillance data from New York City (NYC) provided an important early signal of the season’s intensity. In early November 2025, the percentage of emergency department (ED) visits for influenza more than doubled in one week, from 0.23% to 0.47% (a 104% increase). The trend was even more pronounced for severe illness, as the percentage of hospitalizations from the ED for influenza quadrupled from 0.04% to 0.16% (a 300% increase) over the same period. These early indicators from syndromic streams preceded the larger surge in laboratory-confirmed cases by several weeks, highlighting their utility for early warning.

Early season cumulative case data from NYC (through November 8, 2025) suggest school-aged children and younger adults were disproportionately affected at the outset of the wave. During this initial period, children aged 5-17 years (1,214 cases) and adults aged 18-64 years (1,349 cases) accounted for the majority of confirmed infections. It is important to note these data reflect the early phase of the season and may not represent the full season’s demographic burden. These age distribution patterns could reflect transmission dynamics in school and workplace settings.

Contextual data from related surveillance streams may offer insights into the season’s severity. Provisional mortality data from the prior 2022-2023 season, which peaked at 91 deaths in late December 2022, underscore the potential for severe outcomes during the holiday period, coinciding with the timing of the 2025-2026 case peak. Furthermore, influenza vaccine coverage estimates for the 2024-2025 season indicated a decline across all age groups compared to several previous seasons. For example, coverage among children aged 6 months to 4 years was 66.2%, down from 71.4% in 2023-2024. While a causal link cannot be established from these data, reduced population immunity could be a contributing factor to the intensity observed during the 2025-2026 season.

Laboratory-Confirmed Cases of Influenza in New York State