9 people in the province have now died from lab-confirmed cases of influenza, seven of them in the past week. 

Alberta Health Services released its weekly report on flu stats yesterday, January 23. Of the seven deaths in the past week, three occurred in the Central Zone while two were reported in the Edmonton Zone.

The Calgary Zone, and the North Zone - which includes Grande Prairie - each had one death. That brings the total deaths for the 2019-2020 flu season to two in the North Zone.

Edmonton has been hardest hit by flu deaths with a total of 10 people passing away.  

During the entire flu season of 2018-2019 30 Albertans died, 2 of them in the North Zone. 

There have been 4,198 lab-confirmed cases of influenza in the province with 569 of them in the North Zone. The Influenza B strain of the virus is the most prevalent this season with 2,305 lab-confirmed cases compared with 1,892 of Influenza A. Last year there were only 143 cases of Influenza B for the entire season.  

787 Albertans have been hospitalized this season with 303 in the Calgary Zone, 309 in Edmonton, and 56 in the North Zone.

So far, 1,335,178 Albertans have had the flu vaccine administered, with the North Zone representing 99,882 of those.

Last year, the flu season lasted until nearly the end of March.