Public Health . Successful interruption of seasonal influenza transmission under the COVID-19 rapid response in Zhejiang Province, China

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Public Health


. 2020 Oct 20;189:123-125.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.10.011. Online ahead of print.
Successful interruption of seasonal influenza transmission under the COVID-19 rapid response in Zhejiang Province, China


W Cheng ¹ , Z Yu ¹ , S Liu ¹ , W Sun ¹ , F Ling ¹ , J Pan ² , E Chen ³



Affiliations

• PMID: 33221646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.10.011

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) also interrupted the transmission of influenza.
Study design: This is a descriptive epidemiological study.
Methods: Data on changes in the number of reported influenza cases, number of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits, ILI percentage and influenza virus positivity were compared between the first 18 weeks of 2020 and the same period of 2019.
Results: The changes in the weekly average number of influenza cases were statistically significant between 2020 and 2019 (-4319 vs -525 per week; P < 0.05). The slopes of regression lines for the number of ILI visits were also statistically significant between 2020 and 2019 (-911 vs -98 per week; P < 0.05).
Conclusions: This study found that the prevalence of influenza was substantially decreased when NPIs were implemented for the containment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Containment; Influenza activity; Non-pharmaceutical interventions.