This flu season, WA recorded the most deaths it’s seen in a decade. Here’s why

Washington just had its deadliest flu season in over a decade.

388 Washingtonians died from the virus between late 2024 and early 2025, according to the Washington State Department of Health. That’s nearly three times the death count from the year before and 90 more fatalities than any other flu season in the past ten years, according to DOH data.

302 of the Washingtonians who died from the flu were 65 years of age or older, while another 55 were between the ages of 50 and 64. DOH notes that death counts are likely under-reported as well.

While case counts have declined, and the virus currently accounts for just 0.6% of Washington hospital visits (down from a peak of 6.1% in early February), that number could continue to rise.

That number is even more stark considering that flu death counts had fallen significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state didn’t record a single flu death across late 2020 and early 2021, before recording 14 the following flu season 26 the following year, 272 the year after that, and 132 in the flu season of 2023 to 2024.

Why did WA see such a bad flu season?

DOH officials told McClatchy in an email through a spokesperson that there are a few reasons for this year’s high death count. First of all, this flu season, the primary strains of the virus circulating in Washington were H1N1 and H3N2, both of which fall in the influenza A category and are more likely to cause severe illness than influenza B strains. Influenza A, and H3N2 in particular, is also more prone to mutation than other strains.

Falling vaccination rates

DOH also attributed the severity of this flu season to falling vaccination rates across the country. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, 48.5% of children between the ages of 17 months and 6 years were vaccinated against the flu this year, compared to 62.2% in the flu season between 2019 and 2020.

In Washington, 30.3% of people have been vaccinated against the flu, which is about six percentage points lower than the vaccination rate in the 2019 to 2020 flu season. Among children, that difference is even more stark – the vaccination rate fell from 44.5% in the flu season before the COVID-19 pandemic to 26.8% this year.

“To prevent flu deaths, we need to increase vaccination and improve access to antiviral treatment, especially for people at greatest risk for severe illness,” State Health Officer Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett told McClatchy in a statement. “Staying up to date with vaccinations is something each of us can do to help protect infants, the elderly, and those with chronic conditions.”

Other factors in WA flu season

Another factor that could have contributed to the high death count, according to DOH, is that this flu season saw a late surge, which could have caused a prolonged strain on the health. Case counts had leveled out by the start of 2025, and the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to the virus fell sharply in early January.

But just as flu season appeared to be on the decline, case counts and hospitalization numbers spiked again, far surpassing their previous peaks.

This story was originally published April 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "This flu season, WA recorded the most deaths it’s seen in a decade. Here’s why."