{"id":223936,"date":"2026-01-06T18:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/223936\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:42:11","slug":"flu-still-hitting-shore-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/223936\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu still hitting Shore hard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Health officials here on the Eastern Shore are ringing the alarm this week as flu cases skyrocket from low to high activity almost overnight.<\/p>\n<p>According to information from the VDH website, most of the local cases are coming back as Influenza-A, and the surge is already impacting our medical centers. As of January second, some Shore medical centers have brought back masking mandates to protect patients and staff. While COVID-19 levels are remaining stable for now, doctors say the flu is hitting hard and fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re feeling run down with a fever or cough, health officials say don\u2019t wait to call your doctor. Antiviral treatments work best within the first two days of feeling sick. You can still find the updated 2025\u20132026 flu and COVID shots by contacting the Accomack and Northampton County Health Departments,\u00a0 any Eastern Shore Rural Health Facility and most local drug stores.<\/p>\n<p>Until things calm down, remember the basics: wash your hands, cover your cough, and if you\u2019re sick, please stay home<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"MjgwLDEsMSw2MA==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prestonfordofkeller.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-145618 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Preston-Ford-in-Keller.jpg\" alt=\"Preston Ford in Keller\" width=\"960\" height=\"200\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 960px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 960\/200;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials here on the Eastern Shore are ringing the alarm this week as flu cases skyrocket from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-223936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}