{"id":103712,"date":"2026-01-02T21:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103712\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T21:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:58:12","slug":"what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103712\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. \u2014 WPTV is tracking rising flu levels across the country and finding cases are climbing in Florida.<\/a><\/p>\n

Indian River, St. Lucie and Palm Beach County are all seeing rising flu cases, according to Florida’s Department of Health.<\/p>\n

WATCH BELOW: Flu cases rising in Florida: What you need to know<\/p>\n

Flu cases rising in Florida: What you need to know<\/p>\n

Martin County is seeing no change, and Okeechobee County is seeing a decrease in cases.<\/p>\n

WPTV spoke to local health experts on Friday, who stressed the importance of the flu shot and getting tested if you don’t feel well.<\/p>\n

“We expect to have an influenza season that is potentially going to be more intense than prior influenza seasons,” Dr. Kleper De Almeida with Good Samaritan Hospital in Palm Beach County.<\/p>\n

Right now, Florida is one of 32 states with a high level of flu activity.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nationwide, the CDC estimates<\/a> that there have been at least 7.5 million cases, 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths from flu so far this season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

National News<\/p>\n

Flu hospitalizations nearly double in one week as cases climb<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Doctors said the culprit is the H3N2 strain.<\/p>\n

“The virus changed during the summertime, and it’s leading to a virus that is more apt to cause infection,” De Almeida said.<\/p>\n

De Almieda said the H3N2 strain is responsible for more than 90% of cases this season.<\/p>\n

Since the virus evolved after this year’s flu vaccine was developed, De Almeida said it is now better able to evade the vaccine’s protection.<\/p>\n

He still recommends the flu shot to prevent serious illness and getting tested if you feel sick.<\/p>\n

“Go to a place that can test you so you can get access to a medication that will curtail the illness, that will decrease the intensity of the illness,” De Almeida said.<\/p>\n

De Almeida said children under 2 years old, those over 85, and people with underlying health issues are more susceptible to severe infection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. \u2014 WPTV is tracking rising flu levels across the country and finding cases are climbing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53905,28,30,29,52670],"class_list":["post-103712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-current-flu-cases","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-flu-cases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}