There are still about two weeks left in the 2023-2024 influenza season here in Maine, but so far experts are calling it a “moderate” season, with no sign of the jaw-dropping spike that marked the beginning of the 2022-2023 season. 

The official dates of the annual flu season in Maine are Oct. 1 through May 18. The latest data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention includes the week ending April 27, 2024.  

According to the data, there have been 52 influenza-related deaths this season. To date, medical providers reported 649 hospitalizations related to the flu. There have also been 715 positive test results. 

Anna Kruger, epidemiologist with Maine CDC, said influenza emerged in December 2023, and has dropped below seasonal activity levels starting in mid-March 2024. 

“Influenza really has slowed down in recent weeks,” she said. 

Dr. Dora Mills, chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth, said she has been following influenza cases in Maine for about 30 years, and data from this past season has been about average.  

“For influenza, I would say it’s been a moderate season,” she said. 

Mills also noted that the continued presence of COVID-19 meant that respiratory disease cases were up overall, putting a strain on health care providers in Maine, despite a moderate flu season. 

“It was worse this year because we had COVID added to it,” she said. 

The 2022-2023 influenza season began with an abnormally large surge in cases in December, with as many as 175 hospitalizations at one time, but in the current flu season, Kruger said, there were only two “not quite as strong peaks” in mid-December 2023 and late February 2024. 

Scientists are still debating what led to the 2022 spike in influenza cases. One popular theory is that the coronavirus pandemic drove influenza into dormancy, and when COVID-19 cases began to subside through 2022, it paved the way for influenza to bounce back in December that year. 

Mills and Kruger both acknowledged that it was possible that the 2022 spike in flu cases was a one-time situation brought on by COVID, but both cautioned that no one knows for sure. As such, one cannot say with certainty that such a surge won’t ever happen again. 

“Each influenza season is unique,” Kruger said. “It’s really, really hard, if not kind of impossible to predict what any given season is going to look like.” 

For now, Mills said, the same advice applies: Always make sure your vaccinations are up to date for influenza, COVID and, if you need it, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.  

Mills added that masking, while not necessary all the time, is still a good idea for those with symptoms or vulnerable immune systems. 

“I think that masking is a precaution, but simply an added step of protection that people can use and not look way out of place,” she said. 

Kruger also noted that despite the end of the official flu season, people can still catch the influenza virus.  

“It’s important for us to remember going into next fall that we’ll need to get vaccinated again for the upcoming season,” she said.