- Respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations declined slightly in February 2026 to 3.6% of all hospitalizations.
- Among children aged 0-4 years, respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations increased slightly to 4.3% of all hospitalizations, with the increase driven primarily by HMPV-associated hospitalizations which more than doubled over the last month. RSV remained the largest share of respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations in this age group.
- Among adults aged 65 years and older, respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations declined to 4.4% of all hospitalizations, driven primarily by decreases in influenza and COVID.
Respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), continue to contribute to hospitalizations across the United States. Vulnerable populations, such as infants, children, and older adults, are particularly at risk of severe outcomes. Few sources regularly monitor hospitalizations associated with respiratory viruses. Truveta Research has created a respiratory virus monitoring report to supplement the surveillance data provided by the CDC by describing weekly trends in the rate of hospitalizations overall and for each of the six most common respiratory viruses: COVID-19, influenza, human metapneumovirus (HMPV), parainfluenza virus, RSV, and rhinovirus. This information can inform decisions about public health, clinical care, and public policy.
Because Truveta Data provides the most complete, timely, and clean de-identified EHR data, including full patient medical records, notes, and images, linked with closed claims for more than 130 million patients across the US, we can show the latest trends in these respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations, including valuable insight into two at-risk populations: infants and children (age 0-4 years old) and older adults (age 65 and over).
This report provides a snapshot of the key findings with data through February 2026 in the report specific to the overall population across all respiratory viruses, as well as for two high-risk populations: infants and children (age 0-4 years old) and older adults (age 65 and older). For the full analysis—inclusive of demographics, comorbidities, and overall trends in virus-associated hospitalizations and testing across all age groups for each virus—see the complete report with data through March 1, 2026 on MedRxiv.
Key findings: Trends in respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations
Using a subset of Truveta Data, we identified 1,029,468 hospitalizations of 904,312 unique patients who tested positive for a respiratory virus between October 1, 2020 and March 1, 2026.
Overall hospitalization rates declining
The overall rate of respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations declined slightly throughout February 2026. By the last week of the month, respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations accounted for 3.6% of all hospitalizations, down from 4.3% at the end of January. This represents a 15.3% decrease over the month.
This decline was primarily driven by influenza and COVID (-34.2% and -16.0%), while RSV, rhinovirus, HMPV-, and parainfluenza-associated hospitalizations all remained relatively low and stable across the month.
Pediatric respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations increased slightly
Among children aged 0–4 years, respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations increased slightly across February, and accounted for 4.3% of hospitalizations by the end of the month (+11.8%).
This increase was primarily driven by HMPV, with HMPV-associated hospitalizations more than doubling throughout February (+111.7%), while RSV-, rhinovirus-, influenza-, COVID-, and parainfluenza-associated hospitalizations remained stable (+7.6%, +5.4%, 7.5%, +17.9%, +91.6%).
Respiratory virus-associated hospitalizations declined modestly in adults over the age of 65
Among adults aged 65 and older, respiratory-virus associated hospitalizations declined modestly, decreasing from 5.3% to 4.4% of all hospitalizations (-17%).
The decline was primarily driven by reductions in influenza- and COVID-associated hospitalizations, while RSV-associated hospitalizations increased slight, and other viruses remained low and stable.
Discussion
It is important for public health experts and clinical providers to understand the trends in these infections to inform decisions about public health, clinical care, and public policy. Connecting population-level trends with granular clinical information can be very useful to understand which populations are most impacted and may require additional support.
We will continue to monitor respiratory virus-associated hospitalization overall and for at-risk populations throughout this 2025-2026 respiratory virus season (October 2025 through September 2026).
