Nine more New Brunswickers died from the flu in the last two weeks of 2022, bringing this season’s total to 47.

It comes as provincial health officials reported a continued drop in influenza activity to end the year.

A total of 607 positive cases were reported during the two-week period between Dec. 18 and 31, averaging just over 300 cases a week.

That was compared to between 711 and 1,016 cases per week in the three weeks prior to that.

Since the start of the flu season in late August, there have been 4,145 cases reported — much higher than the 442 cases reported during all of last season.

There were also 99 more flu-related hospitalizations during the last two weeks of 2022, averaging about 50 hospitalizations per week.

In the three weeks before that, there were between 115 and 146 new hospitalizations per week.

Numbers so far this season are trending much higher than all of last season, which saw 92 hospitalizations and five deaths.

During the 2018-19 flu season — the last full season before the pandemic — New Brunswick reported 3,008 lab-confirmed cases, 619 hospitalizations and 38 flu deaths.