Alberta on pace to dwarf previous season’s flu death record
Posted Jan 27, 2026 1:51 pm.
Alberta may be heading for its deadliest flu season on record, as it trails the previous record set in 2024-25 by nearly 30.
The province has recorded 197 deaths so far this season, now ranking as the second-deadliest since record keeping was made public in 2009.
The current record is 236 deaths set in the winter of 24-25, which still stands as the flu season ends within the next couple of months. The season before saw 171, while the 2022-23 season had 121 deaths.
Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary, told CBC that the province is on pace to dwarf that.
As of mid-January, 370 Albertans are in hospital with the flu, including 26 in intensive care.
Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vivien Suttorp said the season was “unique,” noting a high peak of influenza subtype H3N2 that’s slightly different than what was predicted.
She said that test positivity rates and case counts are beginning to fall, and the number of people admitted to hospital for influenza A is starting to drop.
The flu peak may have passed, Suttorp said in a press conference, but the virus is expected to circulate for months, and along with that, severe cases.
About one in five Albertans have their flu shot, one of the lowest rates in years, and more people are ending up in the hospital with secondary infections like pneumonia.
She points out that test positivity rates and case counts are on the decline.
