The H3N2 flu strain is landing more people in the hospital in the United States, and experts are urging Canadians to exercise caution amid a “perfect environment” for spread and a fresh round of case numbers expected in this country next week. The development comes as the flu strain lands more Americans in hospital.
H3N2 is a subtype of the influenza virus. A virus that commonly causes seasonal flu outbreaks. According to the US The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that around 7.5 million Americans have been infected and 81,000 have landed in the hospital this flu season, Global News reported.
“Some parts of the United States are reporting the highest rates of flu hospitalizations since they’ve kept records,” Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto, was quoted as saying by Global News.
The CDC revealed that in the week ending December 20, 2025, one in four (25.6 percent) cases of every influenza test conducted in America returned positive.
For the week ending December 20, 2025, 19,053 people were rushed to hospital in the US with the flu. Five children died in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 20 after an association with influenza, the CDC further stated.
This was a sharp rise as compared to the week ending December 13, 2025. Around 15.7 percent of tests came back positive in the week ending Dec. 13 and nine percent for the week ending December 6, 2025. The strain that is currently the dominant strain in the US and Canada is a strain called H3N2 subclade K.
Subclade K
According to USA Today, subclade K is a mutation of influenza A H3N2. It was previously called A(
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