{"id":101847,"date":"2026-01-16T01:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101847\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:44:20","slug":"long-island-new-york-flu-rates-fall-but-vaccine-still-vital-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101847\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island, New York flu rates fall but vaccine still vital, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Infections\u00a0for influenza among Long Islanders and residents statewide have hit a lull after a December\u00a0spike but health officials Thursday warned the flu season is far from over and vaccination\u00a0still remains\u00a0the best barrier to getting sick.<\/p>\n

For the week ending Dec. 20, Long Island reported 15,629 flu cases. Statewide, there were more than 72,000 reported infections\u00a0in that period, according to state health data.\u00a0The latest data,\u00a0as of Jan. 10, shows that flu cases were down statewide to\u00a021,000. As of Jan. 3, data for Long Island reported\u00a02,581 cases in Suffolk and 2,391 in Nassau.<\/p>\n

Mid January is no\u00a0time to get\u00a0complacent, said\u00a0New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald and Acting New York City Health Commissioner Michelle Morse Thursday during a briefing on the flu season so far.<\/p>\n

“Although we’re reporting three weeks of declining numbers, it’s important to know that I’ve seen this happen before, where then all of a sudden it escalates again,” McDonald said of\u00a0the flu season, which typically ends in the spring.<\/p>\n

New York City flu rates last week belied the state data, with 13% increases in cases compared to the week prior. The flu is unpredictable, Morse said, “and the virus continues to circulate at very high levels across New York City.”<\/p>\n

State officials have touted this season’s flu\u00a0shot as highly effective, especially for children.\u00a0In New York City, 32% of children have received flu shots, officials said. On Long Island and the rest of New York, the latest data shows the\u00a0rate of vaccination for infant to age 18\u00a0at\u00a025.8%.<\/p>\n

The data also shows\u00a0that 25.6%<\/a> of Nassau County residents have received the flu\u00a0shot\u00a0and 21% of Suffolk residents are vaccinated, trailing the state average of 25.4%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, as the flu season hits midseason, there have been more than 269,000 cases statewide, compared to more than 550,000 cases all of last year, according to state health data.<\/p>\n

There have been more than 53,000 cases of the flu this year on Long Island, compared to more than 113,000 cases during the entire flu season from October to April last year, according to the state health department.<\/p>\n

Officials warned that flu season generally runs through April, and while there may be a January decline, there can be peaks later in the year while flu season lingers. The number of flu cases reported also only represents those people who are sick and get tested by physicians.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve got an awful lot of flu in front of us, so it\u2019s not too late to get that vaccine,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

\n\tJohn Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Infections\u00a0for influenza among Long Islanders and residents statewide have hit a lull after a December\u00a0spike but health officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[40730,8676,2953,38559,9,11,10,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-101847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-cold-and-flu","9":"tag-coronavirus","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-infectious-diseases","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}