# Biweekly respiratory surveillance report for week ending March 7, 2026

#### 2026-03-09

## Resources

- For respiratory surveillance in Canada, visit: Respiratory Virus Detection Surveillance System and COVID-19 Data Trends

- For surveillance of COVID-19 variants of concern, visit World Health Organization: Tracking SARS-CoV-2 Variants

- For COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Canada, visit: COVID-19 vaccination in Canada

## Key Highlights

- COVID-19 activity is low and is decreasing

- Influenza activity is moderate and is decreasing

- RSV activity is low and is increasing

## Disease summaries

The table below provides general trends from the different surveillance indicators for each disease that is included in this report.

### Table 1. General trends from the different surveillance indicators for each disease in the Yukon

| COVID-19 | Influenza | RSV
--- | --- | --- | ---
Percent positivity | Decreasing | Decreasing | Increasing
Syndromic indicators |  | Increasing |
Case rates | Decreasing | Decreasing | Increasing
Severity | Stable | Decreasing | Stable

### Figure 1: Percent positivity by respiratory virus

### Figure 2: Percent positivity and number of COVID-19 tests by pathogen and region

#### Percent Positivity

#### Volume of Tests

### Figure 3: Percent positivity and number of Influenza A tests by region

#### Percent Positivity

#### Volume of Tests

### Figure 4: Percent positivity and number of Influenza B tests by region

#### Percent Positivity

#### Volume of Tests

### Figure 5: Percent positivity and number of RSV tests by region

#### Percent Positivity

#### Volume of Tests

### Figure 6: COVID-19, Influenza A, Influenza B, and RSV wastewater surveillance - Whitehorse

### Figure 7: Percentage of weekly Community Health Centre* visits for acute respiratory-related reasons, by region

### Figure 8: Confirmed cases by respiratory virus

#### COVID-19

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza A

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza B

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### RSV

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

### Figure 9: Confirmed case rates per 100,000 by respiratory virus

#### COVID-19

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza A

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza B

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

#### RSV

##### Overall

##### Rural communities

##### Whitehorse

### Figure 10: Hospitalization rates per 100,000 by respiratory virus

#### COVID-19

##### Overall

##### Rural Communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza A

##### Overall

##### Rural Communities

##### Whitehorse

#### Influenza B

##### Overall

##### Rural Communities

##### Whitehorse

#### RSV

##### Overall

##### Rural Communities

##### Whitehorse

### Table 2: Respiratory illness death rates per 100,000 by virus

Respiratory season | COVID-19 | Influenza A | Influenza B | RSV
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
2022-2023 | 13.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.2
2023-2024 | 17.3 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 0.0
2024-2025 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.1
2025-2026 | 0.0 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 0.0

### Figure 11: Respiratory virus case and hospitalization rates per 100,000, current season

### Figure 12: Respiratory virus outbreaks, current season

### Data Notes

All information is subject to change as reconciliation occurs and data becomes more complete.

Epidemiological weeks are standardized ways to count events on weekly basis year after year. The epidemiological weeks used in this report run from Sunday to Saturday. A full calendar can be found on the Public Health Agency of Canada FluWatch website

This report is updated at the following frequency during respiratory season (late August to early June): laboratory, syndromic, sentinel, and active surveillance indicators updated bi-weekly.

This report is updated at the following frequency outside of respiratory season (early June to late August): laboratory, syndromic, sentinel, and active surveillance indicators updated monthly.

Historical medians, maximums, and minimums are calculated by epidemiological week. Among all respiratory seasons for which data is available, the median, maximum, and minimum are found for each epidemiological week of the season.

Lab Indicators

- Based on lab-based PCR tests and rapid point-of-care tests from Whitehorse General Hospital. This does not include at-home rapid tests or tests completed in private labs.

- Percent positivity is based on the volume of specimens. As such, one individual can appear in the data more than once.

- Data will be impacted by clinical testing criteria, availability of testing, and healthcare seeking behaviour.

- Indicators stratified by rural and Whitehorse area residence reflect the information on where the person who was tested resides, and does not necessarily indicate where that person was tested or was located at the time of infection.

- Wastewater surveillance data is extracted from the Public Health Agency of Canada COVID-19 wastewater surveillance dashboard

Syndromic Surveillance Indicators

- Visits are classified by syndromes, which include clinician assessment and groupings of clinical signs and symptoms. As such, these are not considered diagnoses of communicable disease, and visits that are not related to respiratory viral illness may be included.

- Data is presented at the visit level, as such one individual can appear in the data more than once if they have several visits.

- Data may be impacted by factors such as healthcare seeking behaviour, and availability of health services.

- Community health centre visits reflect the regional location of the health centre, and not necessarily the residence of people visiting the health centre.

Active Surveillance Indicators

- Includes all Yukon resident cases reported to Yukon Communicable Disease Control. Does not include non-resident cases that were diagnosed in the Yukon.

- Data will be impacted by clinical testing criteria and availability of testing.

- Episode dates are based on either date of symptom onset, laboratory collection date, or date of report to public health, depending on availability of data.

- Geographical region (rural, Whitehorse, etc.) is based on patient residence, not service delivery location.

- Death rates are estimated from Yukon Communicable Disease Control investigations, and do not reflect finalized Vital Statistics Database data. As such, these rates may be subject to some variation.

- Outbreaks are reported for institutional settings, including but not limited to hospitals, long term care, correctional facilities, and other congregate settings.