A Teacher of the Year resigns from a state board

Dec. 14, 2021

The state will likely report having reached 10,000 COVID deaths in the next few days, but health experts say they’re starting to worry about another outbreak as well: the flu.

Allina Health infectious disease specialist Dr. Frank Rhame says cases started increasing over the past week. Rhame says it's too soon to predict how widespread influenza cases will be this year, but the early signs are concerning.

Hospitals already at capacity with COVID-19 cases could not handle a typical surge of influenza cases, says Rhame. Masking and social distancing were the primary factors that limited the spread of influenza last year. Health officials recommend flu shots as well.

Flu hospitalized more than 4,000 people and was blamed for nearly 200 deaths in the state’s most recent major flu outbreak, the winter of 2019 and 2020.