Health Department Reports Lull in Flu Activity

St Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Flu activity most often peaks around this time of the year, but this flu season is proving to be a bit unusual.

The Minnesota Department of Health’s weekly update on flu activity shows it continues to be a mild flu season in the state and overall influenza activity actually declined a bit during the past week. The classification of the activity was even downgraded from “local” to “sporadic.”

Over the past week, the health department has seen the percentage of people seeking medical care that present with flu-like symptoms plunge below a half of a percent, and fewer than 1 percent of the specimens submitted for testing were positive for influenza.

Since the start of the flu season last fall, there have only been 20 probable outbreaks reported in schools and 4 confirmed outbreaks in long term care facilities. There have also only been 57 people hospitalized with flu-related complications, and 39 of those hospitalizations occurred at the very beginning of the flu season.