A Colorado child younger than 5, from outside the Denver area, has died from flu, according to the state health department.
The case is the fourth pediatric death due to influenza, which is preventable with a vaccine, since the start of October, according to the state’s viral respiratory dashboard. That’s the most flu deaths in children recorded in Colorado since the season the coronavirus pandemic hit, in 2019-20.
This death is the third pediatric flu death recorded in the last three weeks and the fourth in the last two months. Two of the four deaths have been children younger than 5 from outside metro Denver.
Rarely, Colorado has seen flu seasons with higher numbers of pediatric deaths, including six in 2014-15 and 13 in 2009-10 during the H1N1 pandemic, according to a health department spokesperson.
Last week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported a child younger than 5, from outside the Denver area, had died. It was the third of this viral respiratory season.
The week before that, it said a second child had died of flu in Colorado this season; that case was in a high school-aged child from outside Denver.
In mid-December, the state recorded the season’s first influenza-associated pediatric death. That child was elementary school-aged and from metro Denver.
The climbing number of pediatric flu deaths comes during a particularly serious flu season, both in Colorado and across the U.S.
The U.S. recorded 52 pediatric flu deaths as of Jan. 24, according to the website of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last week, the state reported its first COVID-19 death of the season — the fatality was a high school-aged child in the Denver area. The death happened in December and was recorded on the state’s viral respiratory diseases dashboard as the first since Oct. 1, 2025.
Vaccination rates for Coloradans are low
Vaccination rates for influenza in Colorado remain low, as they’ve been all season.
Among all Coloradans, just 29.5 percent have gotten a flu shot this season. That’s a bit lower than last year, according to the state health department. The figures are even lower in rural counties. Eight counties on the Eastern Plains and Western Slope have flu immunization rates below 20 percent. Only a few urban counties have flu vaccination rates above 30 percent.
The rates are similar for Colorado's youngest children.
For children 6 months to 9 years old, the flu vaccination rate is 32.9 percent, which is a bit higher than last year’s rate.
That appears to be far below national numbers, according to the CDC. It reports more than half of all children 6 months to 4 years old are vaccinated for flu, as of the start of 2026.
For older children, those 10-19 years old, Colorado’s rate is lower, at 22.5 percent, which is also far below the national number.
The oldest Coloradans are the only demographic in which a slight majority have gotten vaccinated. For those 65 and older, the rate is 51.6 percent.
The group with the lowest vaccination rate is young adults. The rate for those who are 20-29 years old is about 15 percent.
