As COVID-19 dwindles, state's flu season in line with averages
May 25—MANKATO — While Minnesota had a much milder spring for COVID-19, its influenza season was about in line with historical averages.
The state had 3,364 influenza hospitalizations, including 114 in south-central Minnesota, in the 2022-2023 season, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Health.
Apart from 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, when COVID-19 mitigation strategies were in place, the 3,364 hospitalizations fall in the middle of the three seasons leading up to the pandemic.
Minnesota had as many as 6,446 flu hospitalizations in 2017-2018 and as few as 2,543 in 2018-2019.
This relatively "normal" flu season resulted in 182 deaths statewide.
COVID-19 remained far deadlier during the same time period, even as cases, hospitalizations and death totals dwindled compared to earlier in the pandemic.
South-central Minnesota had only 14 new COVID-19 cases in the week of May 14-20, according to the health department's latest update. The weekly total was one of if not the lowest since the pandemic began in 2020.
Fewer test results get officially recorded now, but there are no signs of an imminent spike or turnaround as the region heads toward summer.
The Department of Health update included one new death from COVID-19 in Brown County. The county has the third-highest death rate from the illness during the pandemic.
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