Flu in Europe right now
No flu wave across the EU/EEA right now: in week 39 (21–27 Sep 2026), 2.6% of GP sentinel swabs were positive for flu, below the 10% epidemic threshold. COVID-19 16.4% (moderate, stable) · RSV 0.1%.The 2026/27 season starts in week 40 (28 Sep – 4 Oct 2026); its first figures arrive about a week later.
ECDC/WHO sentinel data, recalculated every week · Medical review pending
On this page
This week at a glanceSeason curveBy countryCOVID-19 and RSVCountry pagesWhen the season startsIf you are illHow to read the numbersQuestions people askOpen dataSourcesThis week at a glance
- Flu: 2.6% positive across the EU/EEA in week 39 (34 of 1,298 swabs), baseline, stable.
- COVID-19: 16.4% positive across the EU/EEA in week 39 — moderate, stable.
- RSV: 0.1% positive across the EU/EEA in week 39 (1 of 1,175 swabs), baseline, stable.
- Same week last year: flu 2.4%, COVID-19 19.4%.
- Highest flu positivity this week (solid samples only): Spain, 3.9%; highest COVID-19: Spain, 25.9%.
- Last season (2025/26), flu across the EU/EEA went above 10% in week 46 (10–16 Nov 2025) and peaked at 48.2% in week 52.
- Typed flu viruses in the last four weeks: mostly A(H3N2) (74% of 148).
Flu across the EU/EEA: this season and the last three
The numbers behind the chart: the last 8 weeks
| Week | Dates | Swabs | Positive | Share positive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 39 | 21–27 Sep 2026 | 1,298 | 34 | 2.6% |
| Week 38 | 14–20 Sep 2026 | 1,086 | 60 | 5.5% |
| Week 37 | 7–13 Sep 2026 | 872 | 59 | 6.8% |
| Week 36 | 31 Aug – 6 Sep 2026 | 705 | 45 | 6.4% |
| Week 35 | 24–30 Aug 2026 | 567 | 43 | 7.6% |
| Week 34 | 17–23 Aug 2026 | 441 | 36 | 8.2% |
| Week 33 | 10–16 Aug 2026 | 513 | 20 | 3.9% |
| Week 32 | 3–9 Aug 2026 | 489 | 20 | 4.1% |
When the last four seasons started and peaked
| Season | Above 10% (2 weeks) | Peak | Weeks to peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | Week 46 10–16 Nov 2025 | 48.2% · Week 52 | 6 |
| 2024/25 | Week 50 9–15 Dec 2024 | 47.1% · Week 5 | 7 |
| 2023/24 | Week 49 4–10 Dec 2023 | 38.5% · Week 52 | 3 |
| 2022/23 | Week 45 7–13 Nov 2022 | 41.6% · Week 51 | 6 |
A season counts as started here when flu positivity is at or above 10% for two weeks in a row — the threshold European surveillance uses to mark an epidemic. Countries define their own epidemic thresholds, so a national authority may date its season a week or two differently.
Flu in Europe this week, country by country
Each country's share of positive GP sentinel swabs in the latest week it reported, highest first. Networks that only report in season, or had too few swabs, are listed at the bottom. Rows marked * are small samples (fewer than 50 swabs) and swing more from week to week.
| Country | Flu | Level | vs last week | COVID-19 | RSV | Swabs | Data week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 7.7% | Baseline | – | 5.8% | 0.0% | 52 | Wk 36–39pooled |
| Slovenia | 5.0% | Baseline | – | 10.0% | 0.0% | 20 | Wk 37 |
| Belgium | 4.2% | Baseline | – | – | – | 24 | Wk 36–39pooled |
| Spain | 3.9% | Baseline | ▼ −4.2 | 25.9% | 0.2% | 665 | Wk 39 |
| Denmark | 3.7% | Baseline | – | 0.0% | 0.0% | 27 | Wk 39 |
| Cyprus | 3.6% | Baseline | – | 8.6% | 0.0% | 28 | Wk 36–39pooled |
| Austria | 3.3% | Baseline | ▬ −1.6 | – | – | 121 | Wk 39 |
| Luxembourg | 2.2% | Baseline | – | 6.7% | 0.0% | 45 | Wk 39 |
| France | 1.7% | Baseline | ▬ −2.1 | 6.1% | 0.0% | 115 | Wk 39 |
| Estonia | 0.0% | Baseline | – | 0.0% | 0.0% | 22 | Wk 39 |
| Germany | 0.0% | Baseline | ▼ −3.2 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 85 | Wk 39 |
| Greece | 0.0% | Baseline | – | 0.0% | 0.0% | 27 | Wk 39 |
| Hungary | 0.0% | Baseline | ▬ −1.6 | 1.3% | 0.0% | 75 | Wk 39 |
| Ireland | 0.0% | Baseline | – | 17.4% | 0.0% | 23 | Wk 37 |
| Norway | 0.0% | Baseline | – | 4.0% | 0.0% | 25 | Wk 39 |
| Bulgaria | network reports in season only · last data week 13 | ||||||
| Czechia | network reports in season only · last data week 34 | ||||||
| Italy | network reports in season only · last data week 9 | ||||||
| Lithuania | network reports in season only · last data week 19 | ||||||
| Poland | network reports in season only · last data week 34 | ||||||
| Portugal | fewer than 20 swabs in the last four weeks · last data week 37 | ||||||
| Slovakia | fewer than 20 swabs in the last four weeks · last data week 39 | ||||||
| Sweden | network reports in season only · last data week 20 | ||||||
15 of 23 networks have a current flu figure. Reporting in season only: Bulgaria, Czechia, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. Too few swabs in the last four weeks: Portugal and Slovakia.
COVID-19 and RSV across the EU/EEA
COVID-19
16.4% positive across the EU/EEA in week 39 — moderate, stable. Same week last year: 19.4%.
COVID-19 in Europe right now →RSV
0.1% positive across the EU/EEA in week 39 (1 of 1,175 swabs), baseline, stable. Same week last year: 0.2%.
RSV in Europe right now →Country pages
When does flu season start in Europe?
European flu surveillance runs from week 40 (early October) to week 20 (mid-May). Over the summer flu stays at baseline: only a few in every hundred swabs from people with flu-like illness test positive. The season is declared over when positivity falls back below 10% and stays there.
Across the EU/EEA, flu went above 10% in week 45 in 2022/23, week 49 in 2023/24, week 50 in 2024/25 and week 46 in 2025/26, and peaked 3 to 7 weeks later at 38.5%–48.2% of swabs positive.
Timing differs by weeks between countries: in 2025/26, Ireland, Italy and Spain crossed 10% first, in week 44, and Cyprus, Hungary and Poland last, in week 50.
This page sets the current season against the last three, which is the quickest way to see whether this winter is early, late or unusually high.
Ill with flu, COVID-19 or RSV: what to do
Flu, COVID-19 and RSV cause similar symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, aches and tiredness. Most healthy adults get better at home within one to two weeks with rest, plenty to drink and paracetamol or ibuprofen for fever and pain.
Stay at home while you have a fever and keep away from people at higher risk: babies, older people and anyone who is pregnant or has a weakened immune system. Antiviral medicines for flu work best when they are started within 48 hours of the first symptoms, so people in a higher-risk group should contact a doctor early.
How long are you contagious? Our calculator works out your dates from the day your symptoms started: How long am I contagious with flu?
See a doctor if
- you are 65 or over, pregnant, or have recently given birth
- you have a long-term condition, or a weakened immune system
- you feel very unwell, or short of breath
- your symptoms are not improving after 7 days
- you are worried about a baby's or child's symptoms
Call 112 in an emergency
- sudden chest pain
- severe difficulty breathing — gasping, choking, or unable to get words out
- coughing up blood
- a baby who is breathing very fast, has blue lips or is unusually drowsy
Mobi Doctor connects you with a licensed EU-registered doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes, daily 7am–11pm CET.
How to read these numbers
Each week, GPs in every country's sentinel network take swabs from a sample of patients who come in with flu-like illness or an acute respiratory infection, and laboratories test them for influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV. Test positivity is the share of those swabs that are positive. It tells you how likely it is that a flu-like illness is flu, COVID-19 or RSV right now — not how many people are ill.
For flu, below 10% is baseline: 10% is the epidemic threshold used in European sentinel surveillance. The bands above it (10–25% low, 25–40% moderate, 40–55% high, 55% and over very high), and the bands for COVID-19 (5/15/25/35%) and RSV (3/8/15/25%), are our own, so that every page uses the same scale.
Small samples swing from week to week. We leave out any week with fewer than 20 swabs, mark weeks with fewer than 50 (*), and only show a trend — a change of 3 percentage points or more against the previous week — when both weeks have at least 30. Between seasons, low-volume networks are pooled over four weeks and labelled. Only a solid weekly sample can be named Europe's highest.
The latest week is provisional: countries add late results, so a figure can still change in the next weekly release. The UK and Switzerland are not part of this dataset.
Questions people ask
Is flu going around in Europe right now?
No flu wave across the EU/EEA right now: in week 39 (21–27 Sep 2026), 2.6% of GP sentinel swabs were positive for flu, below the 10% epidemic threshold. COVID-19 16.4% (moderate, stable) · RSV 0.1%.
When does flu season start in Europe?
The surveillance season runs from week 40 to week 20. Across the EU/EEA, flu went above the 10% epidemic threshold in week 45 (2022/23), week 49 (2023/24), week 50 (2024/25) and week 46 (2025/26).
Is COVID going around right now?
COVID-19 is going around across the EU/EEA: 16.4% of GP sentinel swabs were positive for SARS-CoV-2 in week 39 (21–27 Sep 2026), moderate, stable.
How often is this page updated?
Every week, after ECDC and WHO Europe publish the ERVISS data, usually on a Friday. The national figures are one to two weeks old by then; the data week is shown at the top of the page. The latest week is provisional and can change when countries add late results.
What does test positivity mean?
It is the share of swabs from GP patients with flu-like illness that test positive for a virus. High positivity means a flu-like illness is likely to be that virus right now. It does not count how many people are ill.
How long am I contagious with flu?
From about a day before symptoms start until five to seven days after, and longer in young children and people with a weakened immune system. Our Am I still contagious? calculator works out your dates.
Open data
Every figure on these pages, per country and virus, with the sample size and 95% confidence interval. Free to reuse with a link (CC BY 4.0).
Cite as: Mobi Doctor, Flu in Europe right now — calculated from ECDC/WHO Europe ERVISS data, 2 Oct 2026.
About this page
Built by the Mobi Doctor medical content team from the weekly ECDC/WHO Europe ERVISS data release. Every figure on this page is calculated from that data by the same published method each week; nothing is typed in by hand.
Medical review by Dr. Chrysoula Liakou is in progress; this page will say when it is complete.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it against the source. Contact us