The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the map of flu activity across the United States continues to spike upward in most states.
STATES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBERS
That includes in Tennessee, along with 13 other states, along with New York City, who are are now at the CDC’s highest tier of influenza activity.
The other states are Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and South Carolina.
RATE JUMPS FROM ONE WEEK TO THE NEXT
The flu positivity rate from lab tests across the country during the most recent reported week , the third week of January, had jumped week-to-week from 18% to 25%.
OPINION – WHY THE INCREASED NUMBERS?
Dr. Mattew Kippenhan from Northwestern Medicine believes one reason that so many people seem to be falling ill is because he thinks, unfortunately, a lot of people have become complacent after COVID and didn’t get their vaccines, so there’s just a higher risk of those people actually becoming ill.
In a December 20th update, the CDC said that vaccination coverage “is lower across most groups of people compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
