Emergency Department Visits for Respiratory Viruses by Geography and Week

Weekly emergency department visit percentages for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV across U.S. geographies. Data originates from the CDC's National Syndromic Surveillance Program. The dataset was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in percent_visits for each pathogen across different weeks using the week_end column.
• Compare geographic disparities in respiratory virus burden by examining percent_visits across different geography values.
• Model the co-circulation of COVID-19, flu, and RSV by analyzing the pathogen and percent_visits columns over time.
• Assess the impact of public health interventions by tracking changes in percent_visits for specific pathogens before and after policy dates.

Strengths

• Includes data for three major respiratory pathogens (COVID-19, flu, RSV) and a combined metric.
• Provides weekly temporal resolution via the week_end column for tracking outbreaks.
• Offers geographic breakdowns through the geography column for regional analysis.

Limitations

• The total number of records (rows) and the specific geographic units covered are unknown.
• The sample data is unavailable, preventing immediate assessment of data distributions and potential null values.
• The license terms are unspecified, which may restrict certain uses.

Provenance

Source

data.cdc.gov, the CDC's official data portal.

Collection Method

Aggregated from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) emergency department data.

Time Range

Covers the 2023 respiratory virus season; specific start and end dates are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-03.

Geography

Covers multiple U.S. geographies; the exact scope (e.g., national, state, county) is not specified.