The CDC recommends a flu vaccine could be more important than ever as threats of a “twindemic” looms.
But the Indiana Department of Health has been consistently reporting baseline lows of flu activity since October.
Graham McKeen is assistant university director of public and environmental health at Indiana University. He said flu vaccines spiked this year.
"Luckily, I think all the public health measures that we’re taking have had an effect,” McKeen said. “We’ve seen a pretty low incidence of influenza nationally, at the state level, and at the local level.”
The state reported 390 new cases of “influenza-like illness” in outpatient facilities for the week ending January 23, down from 411 the previous week. Indiana has only reported three influenza-associated deaths this season.
But while the flu has been consistently low, Indiana’s COVID-19 cases have continued to fluctuate. McKeen says this speaks to how contagious COVID-19 is.
The state reported a surge of cases beginning in October, peaking with a daily high of 8,431 new cases on December 2. Since January 11, the seven-day positivity has been steadily declining.
“We’re pretty confident things are definitely trending in the right direction,” McKeen said. “We have an amazing vaccine, case counts are dropping, hospitalizations are dropping, deaths are decreasing. “
McKeen said public health measures will be very important in the coming months as flu season continues and new strains of COVID-19 are introduced.
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