Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard

Website Last Updated 3:00 p.m. 9/2/2026
Data shown as of previous day at 2:30 p.m. PT.

These dashboards show trends in Washington state for COVID-19, influenza (flu), and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The data on these dashboards help us monitor early signs of disease spread, severity of illness, virus variants or subtypes occurring in Washington, and hospital bed use due to COVID-19, flu, and RSV.

Learn how to stop the spread of these illnesses by visiting our COVID-19, flu, and RSV pages.

Dashboard Data Notes

Wednesday September 02, 2026: Hospitalization data for the last 3 weeks may be incomplete, while Death and Emergency Department data are current through August 22, 2026 and August 29, 2026, respectively.

COVID-19 and RSV mortality data are currently unavailable due to changes we are undergoing in data processing. We will resume updating this data when possible.

The CDC updated how it measures wastewater viral activity level (WVAL) in August 2026. Our dashboard currently uses the previous method while we work to incorporate these new updates.

Data Downloads

• ARI, COVID-19, influenza, and RSV emergency visits (CSV)
• COVID-19, influenza, and RSV hospitalizations (CSV)
• COVID-19, influenza, and RSV deaths (CSV)
• COVID-19, influenza, and RSV data dictionary (CSV)
• COVID-19, influenza, and RSV wastewater (CSV)
• COVID-19 and influenza hospital use (CSV)
• COVID-19 and influenza hospital use data dictionary (CSV)

Technical Notes

The Department of Health (DOH) provides detailed notes to help you understand the Respiratory Disease Dashboard data for COVID-19, influenza (flu), and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). We present information for the following categories of data:

• Emergency Department (ED) Visits
• Hospitalizations
• Deaths
• Hospital Use
• Demographics
• Suppression for Small Numbers
• Population Denominator Data

For each category, there may be detailed information on the data source, data lags and limitations, definitions, calculations, and additional resources and references. For more information about the Respiratory Illness Data dashboard, email CDSDataSupport@doh.wa.gov.

Emergency Department (ED) Visits

Data Source

• The data for emergency department visits are obtained from the Washington State Department of Health Rapid Information Health Network (RHINO) program. All non-federal emergency departments and their associated inpatient units report health care encounter data in near real-time to RHINO. Key data elements reported include:
  • Patient demographic information (e.g., age)
  • Clinical information (e.g., diagnosis codes)
  • Additional visit information (e.g., length of stay, admission information, and discharge information)

• Learn more about RHINO data here: RHINO Data Description

Disease Activity Thresholds

• Activity thresholds help us understand when there is increased spread of respiratory illnesses. They are recalculated at the beginning of every respiratory season using data from the most recent seasons.
  • The influenza and RSV activity thresholds were calculated using a standard application of the Moving Epidemics Method, which uses 5 seasons of data: 2018-19, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-2026. We excluded the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons because they were outlier seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
  • The COVID-19 activity threshold was calculated using a modified application of the Moving Epidemics Method because COVID-19 waves can happen multiple times per year. We used data between February 2023 and September 2025 to manually identify COVID-19 waves.  
  • The acute respiratory illness threshold was calculated using a modified version of CDC’s methodology for calculating their respiratory illness activity levels.
• As our understanding of respiratory viruses continues to grow, we will re-evaluate and update our methods using newer scientific methods. Because the COVID-19 threshold was calculated from pandemic levels of disease, the threshold will change over time as disease levels change and become more endemic.

Data Limitations

• Data are not final and may change. Visits reflect unique encounters, not unique persons, and are not considered cases. Additional follow-up is required for every visit in order to determine if a patient meets the appropriate criteria as defined in the ED Visit Definitions section below.
• Instead of showing data by individual counties, the ED visits dashboard use larger regional areas called Accountable Communities of Health (ACH).

Data Lags

• Information added to a medical record, such as a diagnosis code, is reported to RHINO within 24 hours. While we typically see a diagnosis code within 2 to 4 days of a visit, diagnosis codes are dependent on the facility workflow and medical coding capacity; therefore, there may be longer delays in reporting that information.

ED Visit Definitions

• ARI: Acute Respiratory Illness is a broad set of diagnosis codes for pathogen-specific conditions such as COVID-19, influenza, and RSV, in addition to diagnosis codes for non-specific conditions such as cough, viral and bacterial pneumonia, or acute bronchitis. See the full list of diagnosis codes included here (PDF). For a visit to be considered acute respiratory illness-related, only one of the diagnosis codes found in this list needs to be present in the visit information.
• COVID-19: Emergency department visits associated with COVID-19 include records that contained one or more of the following COVID-19 specific ICD 10-CM discharge diagnosis codes:
  • U07.1 (COVID-19)
  • J12.82 (Pneumonia due to coronavirus disease 2019)
• Influenza: Emergency department visits associated with influenza include records that contained one or more of the following influenza specific ICD 10-CM discharge diagnosis codes:
  • J09 (Influenza due to certain identified influenza viruses)
  • J10 (Influenza due to other identified influenza virus)
  • J11 (Influenza due to unidentified influenza virus)

• RSV: Emergency department visits associated with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) include records that contained one or more of the following RSV specific ICD 10-CM discharge diagnosis codes:
  • B97.4 (Respiratory syncytial virus as the cause of diseases classified elsewhere)
  • J12.1 (Respiratory syncytial virus pneumonia)
  • J20.5 (Acute bronchitis due to respiratory syncytial virus)
  • J21.0 (Acute bronchiolitis due to respiratory syncytial virus)

Demographics

• Age: Age less than one year was calculated in months at time of visit, otherwise age is in years at time of visit.

Hospitalizations

Data Source

• The data for laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations are from the Washington State Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET) Program. Since 2024, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) has participated in a CDC-led surveillance network under the Emerging Infections Program to monitor laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. Additional information on RESP-NET and national trends is available on the CDC RESP-NET dashboard.
• Data are collected and reported from the WA RESP-NET catchment area, which includes 8 counties (Benton, Clark, Franklin, King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, and Yakima). This represents about 73% of Washington State’s population. Additional information can be found on the WA RESP-NET webpage.

Data Limitations

• Data may change as additional records are received, and it may take about 3 weeks for a hospitalization to appear on the dashboard. Hospitalizations represent RESP-NET cases, not unique persons; a person may be counted more than once if separate hospitalizations meet case criteria. Data are collected in 8 counties in Washington, which covers about 73% of the state population, which may not be representative of the entire state population

Data Lags

• It takes time for a health care facility to report a hospitalization. It takes additional time for WA DOH to receive the report, validate, calculate and display hospitalization rates on the dashboard. Due to this expected lag, the data for the most recent 3 weeks may be incomplete and underestimate the true hospitalization rate. This lag may increase around holidays or during periods of increased hospital utilization. Each week, WA DOH updates the rates as additional records are received. Temporary interruptions or delays in facility data feeds may occur due to system maintenance, technical issues, or changes to facility reporting systems.

Hospitalization Definitions

• RESP-NET hospitalization: A hospitalization is defined as when a hospitalized patient of one of the 8 RESP-NET counties tests positive for COVID-19, influenza, or RSV within 14 days before or during their hospitalization

Hospitalization Rate Calculations

All rates presented in the dashboard use the Washington state population distribution based on the Office of Financial Management’s (OFM) Small Area Demographic Estimates (SADE). The population estimates of counties in the WA RESP-NET catchment area were combined and used as the denominator for rate calculations. 

• A 4-week rolling average is calculated by averaging the weekly hospitalization rates from the most recent 4 weeks. This helps smooth out week-to-week variation and highlights underlying trends. 
• Age-adjusted hospitalization rates are calculated using a direct standardization method and the 2000 U.S. Standard Population. Age-adjusted rates are presented for race and ethnicity stratifications.

Demographics

• Age: 0-4, 5-17, 18-49, 50-64, 65+ years (default); <1, 1-4, 5-17, 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-64, 65-74, 75+ years
  Race: American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN), Asian, Black, Multiple Races, Another Race, White, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI)
• Ethnicity: Non-Hispanic, Hispanic

Deaths

Data Source

• The data for COVID-19 and RSV deaths are obtained from the registered death certificates for WA residents, which are housed in the Washington Health and Life Event System (WHALES).
• Potential lab-confirmed influenza-associated deaths are reported through multiple sources including:
  • Registered death certificates
  • Direct report from health care facilities
  • Collaboration with medical examiners
• Influenza-associated deaths are investigated by Local Health Jurisdictions and information is stored in the Washington Disease Reporting System (WDRS).

Data Limitations

• COVID-19:
  • COVID-19 death data may be underrepresented due to various factors that currently and historically impact reporting. Only death data reported officially to Washington State through death certificates are used in the counts in the dashboard. COVID-19 deaths early in the pandemic may not have been captured and reported due to the lack of available testing. Deaths of persons who only tested with a home testing kit may not have had COVID-19 listed as a cause of death, so these may not be counted.
  • A small portion of deaths may not have been counted due to coding limitations related to nonstandard naming practices of “COVID-19” and inconsistent use of diagnosis codes for the cause of death on the death certificate. On January 1, 2023, DOH implemented a new classification of COVID-19 death. The new classification aligns with emerging standards; however, probable cases of COVID-19 death are no longer counted and may result in missed counts of COVID-19 deaths.
• Influenza:
  • Influenza deaths are likely underreported. The reasons for this underreporting vary. Influenza may not be listed as a cause of death, influenza testing may not have occurred in a timely fashion to identify the virus, or may not have been performed at all, and lab-confirmed influenza-associated deaths may not have been appropriately reported to public health.
  • These counts reflect only deaths officially reported to the Washington State Department of Health. Each influenza season is reported as week 40 through week 39 of the following year. Note that due to reporting lag, counts may be different at the county or region level. Only deaths reported by the county as “investigation complete” are included in the official Washington State Department of Health counts.
• RSV:
  • RSV death reporting and surveillance has no national standard and relies only on information in the cause of death fields on the death certificate. These data capture any death with a specific mention of RSV, but do not show a difference between deaths where RSV was the underlying cause of death or deaths for which RSV was a contributing factor. Due to coding differences, analyses based on the diagnosis codes assigned to the cause of death fields may result in slightly different death counts, as the diagnosis code assignment algorithm prioritizes terms differently.

Data Lags

• COVID-19 and RSV: Deaths are typically registered within one week, but deaths relying on post-mortem testing may take months to get the cause of death information updated.
• Influenza: Data are available on Wednesdays for the complete epi week 2 weeks prior (e.g., on Wednesday 8/30/2023 data will be available through epi week 33 ending 8/19/2023).

Definitions

• COVID-19: A COVID-19 death includes a record of COVID-19 or a similar term on a death certificate.
• Influenza: A lab-confirmed influenza-associated death is defined as a death resulting directly or indirectly from a laboratory-confirmed influenza illness where there was no period of complete recovery between the illness and death.
• RSV: An RSV death includes any record of RSV or a similar term on a death certificate.

Hospital Use

Data Source

• WA HEALTH is Washington’s Healthcare, Emergency, and Logistics Tracking Hub. Acute care hospitals submit data to WA HEALTH daily, dashboard metrics are assigned to the geographic location of facilities, not a patient’s area of residence. Interpret regional data with caution.

Data Limitations

• Data is self-reported by acute care facility.

Data Lags

• It takes up to 6 days for data collection, quality checks, and reporting.

Definitions

• Hospital Beds in Use: The hospital occupancy metric refers to the 7-day average number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 or influenza. It is calculated by adding the total number of pediatric and adult COVID-19 hospitalizations during a 7-day period and dividing by 7.

• ICU Beds in Use: The ICU bed occupancy metric is a subset of the hospital beds in use metric. It refers to the 7-day average number of people in an intensive care unit bed (ICU) with confirmed COVID-19 or influenza.