HOUSTON – According to the Department of State Health Services, 20% of people testing for flu are positive. That number has been increasing each week all this month.
Texas Children’s Hospital said a lot of school-age children and their siblings are being hospitalized for severe cases.
Typically, flu peaks in February, so this is considered late in the season.
Dr. Charlene Flash, the infectious disease doctor with Avenue 360, said the virus still hasn’t peaked since cases are still on the rise.
“You know, we had this horrendous COVID outbreak earlier in the year in our region and people were getting vaccinated for COVID and masking and social distancing and doing all these precautions, and as COVID has started to wane, and we’ve been able to thankfully release some of the restrictions, unfortunately, an outcome of that is that the restrictions that were protecting people from COVID were also protecting people from the flu,” Dr. Flash explained.
She said not to forget if a COVID test is negative, you should also be tested for the flu. If caught early, there are treatments for the flu.
Symptoms include:
Headache, chills, stuffy head, fever.
Dr. Flash said if you have symptoms, stay home. Staying home when you’re sick is one pandemic practice, she says, we don’t need to lose.