Very little influenza in the WHO European Region during the 2020/21 season, weeks 40 2020 to 8 2021

Between weeks 40 2020 and 8 2021, the World Health Organization European Region experienced a 99.8% reduction in sentinel influenza virus positive detections (33/25,606 tested; 0.1%) relative to an average of 14,966/39,407 (38.0%; p < 0.001) over the same time in the previous six seasons. COVID-19 pandemic public health and physical distancing measures may have extinguished the 2020/21 European seasonal influenza epidemic with just a few sporadic detections of all viral subtypes. This might possibly continue during the remainder of the influenza season. We study features of influenza epidemiology in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region from week 40 2020 to week 8 2021, a period when in usual seasons the highest influenza activity (peak of seasonal epidemic) would be expected. Results are compared to those of the previous six seasons (2014/15-2019/20).

Automated summary

The European Region experienced a significant reduction in influenza virus positive detections during the 2020/21 season, possibly due to the public health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there are only sporadic detections of influenza viruses in Europe.