A child from Lianyungang, East China’s Jiangsu Province, gets vaccinated against the influenza virus on November 29, 2025. Photo: VCG
17 provinces in China are seeing high influenza rates, while other provinces are experiencing moderate spread of the disease, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Wednesday, citing an official from the National Influenza Center under the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).
Acute respiratory infectious diseases in China are currently showing an overall upward trend, said Wang Dayan, a researcher at the Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention under China CDC. Recent monitoring indicates that influenza activity is likely to peak in early to mid-December, Wang added.
Monitoring also shows that the positivity rate in the 17 provinces with high influenza prevalence levels exceeds 45 percent, CCTV News reported.
Influenza-like illness refers to patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms, typically characterized by a body temperature of 38 C or higher, sore throat, or cough, Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based medical expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
A 45 percent positive detection rate means that nearly half of current patients presenting such flu-like symptoms are infected by the influenza virus, while the remaining cases may result from other viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus and rhinovirus, he added.
This does not imply that nearly half of the national population is infected with influenza as some netizens have mistakenly interpreted, Zhuang noted.
The Beijing CDC said that the city is currently experiencing a peak period of influenza activity, with the upward trend slowing down, Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.
Zhang Datao, director of the institute for infectious and endemic disease control at the Beijing CDC, said that influenza is currently the predominant respiratory infectious disease in Beijing, and no overlapping outbreaks with other respiratory infectious diseases have been observed.
The number of visits to fever clinics citywide is also lower than the peak levels recorded in the past two years, Zhang added.
Influenza A (H3N2) subtype remains the dominant strain, accounting for more than 95 percent, with a small number of influenza A (H1N1) subtype and influenza B viruses circulating concurrently, Wang was quoted by the CCTV News as saying.
The H3N2 subtype is a relatively common viral variant, and within the same epidemic season, influenza A (H1N1), H3N2 subtypes, or influenza B viruses may alternate in dominance, Zhuang said.
He added that the virus is prone to mutation, leading to annual influenza outbreaks, yet these remain at seasonal epidemic levels and do not imply progressively stronger evolution.
This flu season, cases among the 5-14 age group have been significantly higher than in other age groups, the report said. The number of influenza cluster outbreaks has also increased compared with the previous flu season, with almost all of these outbreaks occurring in educational and childcare settings.
To address the rising trend of influenza activity, the National Health Commission has recently instructed local authorities to expand medical service supply, according to CCTV News.
Measures include increasing outpatient appointment slots, implementing triage and diversion, extending service hours, and establishing extended-hours clinics, evening clinics, and weekend clinics to meet the public’s medical needs.
As of now, pediatric services have achieved full coverage in all comprehensive hospitals and maternal and child health hospitals at second grade or above nationwide, the report said.
Representatives from multiple online pharmaceutical platforms and offline pharmacies said that the overall capacity of influenza-related medications this year remains sufficient, the report said.
