Flu A and COVID-19 levels are both definitely going up. COVID levels have accelerated quite a bit.
I guess COVID-19 is not going to peak in early October like it did for the past few years. Pity.
Vaccines
The province’s fall vaccination campaign has started — sort of?
I heard on Oct 1 that they had opened the season on and were sending people to the Get Vaccinated website. I eagerly went there and found that the downtown pharmacies had no appointments until Oct. 13, but that there was a pharmacy in Burnaby which was accepting appointments, so made an appointment for the next day. I didn’t get a confirmation text, so the morning of 2 Oct I called them, and they said I didn’t need an appointment, just show up. (WTF, but okay…)
So then I called our local, regular pharmacy and asked them. They said that they were not allowed to give flu shots until Oct. 13.
I did go to the Burnaby pharmacy and did get a flu shot. (Well, they injected me with something, I hope it was a flu shot and not anthrax!)
Just now, I looked for a press release or something announcing the start of the vaccination campaign, and couldn’t find anything.
So I am really confused.
Charts
From the Viral Respiratory Outcomes page (updated 1 October 2026 with data through 26 September):
From the Viral Pathogen Characterization page with data up to 26 September, as reported on 1 October:
I will repeat that the flu season is TWO MONTHS early this year.
Here’s fluA by itself:
COVID-19 is also rising, and has decided to get serious about it.
In the most recent data (ending 26 September 2026) as reported on 1 October 2026, among respiratory virus cases that the province has test data for:
- 45.9% were influenza A or B (almost exclusively A);
- 30.6% were COVID-19;
- 20.0% were entero/rhinoviruses;
- 1.2% were parainfluenza;
- 1.2% were RSV;
- 0.5% were “common cold” coronaviruses;
- 0.4% were adenoviruses;
- 0.1% were metapneumonia viruses.
Wastewater
💩💧 From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet with data through 20 September 2026:
