Late-in-the-season surge in flu cases reported in Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — Flu season in Central Florida is in full swing, and doctors said it’s happening later than usual.

Dr. Timothy Hendrix, medical director of AdventHealth Centra Care, said positivity rates for COVID-19 and the flu are equal right now. He said flu cases are going up as mask requirements are relaxed or removed.

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“Everyone’s taking off their mask trying to get back to normal. Now we’re all getting the flu, we didn’t have much of a flu season,” Hendrix said. “We’re having a very late flu season right now.”

The CDC says that typically, the flu season starts in October and ends in May, but warned ahead of time that this year may look different.

On its website, the CDC says that 1 in 10 tests are now coming back positive for influenza, and a map shows Florida is currently at a “low risk” level.

Nationally, the CDC says there have been at least 5.7 million cases of the flu and an estimated 59,000 hospitalizations and 3,600 deaths.

“When we’re vaccinating people against the flu in the fall we want to make sure that we’re protecting our public because influenza’s still out there,” Hendrix said.

Dr. Rajiv Bahl, an emergency medicine physician, said that if you already received the flu vaccine last fall, you don’t need another shot right now. The shots are good for one year.

But he said you should take some of the precautions we’ve all gotten used to during the pandemic.

“If you are around sick people, wear a mask, practice social distancing, washing your hands as well,” Bahl said.

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