In 2008, the number of deaths for which P&I was listed as the underlying cause in the national mortality statistics was 8,665; of these, 6,795 (78%) were reported through the NDCS. The weekly surveillance-based P&I mortality estimates had a consistently strong correlation with those obtained from mortality statistics data (correlation coefficient 0.85, p B0.0001). Eighty seven percent of the reports were received within 7 days after death (median 2 days). During the 2010Á11 influenza season, an increase in mortality was observed in January 2011, with the highest weekly number of P&I deaths to be 421 (week 5 of 2011) (Fig. 1) . From 2010 through 2011, consecutive alarms were generated for week 26Á27, 31Á32 and 36Á39 of 2010, and week 2Á15 of 2011 ( Fig. 1) .