{"id":94267,"date":"2026-01-08T23:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94267\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:43:09","slug":"flu-continues-to-circulate-at-alarming-rates-new-york-city-health-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94267\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu continues to circulate at alarming rates, New York City health officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"

While flu cases are dropping, the virus is still spreading at high rates<\/a>\u00a0across New York City, officials say.<\/p>\n

Dr. Michelle Morse, the city Department of Health’s acting commissioner, said the number of people sick has surpassed the past two flu seasons.<\/p>\n

“As of the week ending Jan 3, more than 128,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for flu so far this season,” Morse said.<\/p>\n

Local pharmacies and urgent care centers are feeling the impact \u00a0<\/p>\n

Ralph Ekstrand, who has been a pharmacist for 45 years, said this is one of the worst flu seasons he can remember.<\/p>\n

At Moby Drugs in Farmingdale, he said they are selling a lot of prescriptions and over-the-counter medication. The pharmacy also sold out of the at-home flu tests.<\/p>\n

“We’ve done just under 90 prescriptions in three hours, and about 20 of those prescriptions were for flu cases,” he said.<\/p>\n

City MDs across New York City are also seeing about a 30% increase in patient volume, largely due to the uptick in flu cases.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jason Idelson, CityMD’s clinical chief, said people should seek medical care right away if they are feeling sick.<\/p>\n

“There are some really, really good medications, anti-viral medicines, that if taken within the first 48 hours, will make them better,” Idelson said. “It will decrease the severity of symptoms, duration of symptoms, and I think the key is it also decreases hospitalizations.”<\/p>\n

What are the symptoms of the Flu?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0website states the virus can cause mild to severe illness.<\/p>\n

FeverCoughSore throatRunny or stuffy noseMuscle or body achesHeadachesFatigue (tiredness)Some may have vomiting and diarrhea\u00a0Health experts advise vaccinations<\/p>\n

Flu hospitalizations in New York are high, according to data<\/a>. The latest, which is from Christmas week, shows a 24% increase from the week before.<\/p>\n

However, Morse emphasized vaccines prevent serious illness.<\/p>\n

“Last respiratory virus season set an unfortunate record for cases of pediatric flu deaths,” she said. “Eighty-nine percent of children who were eligible to get the flu vaccine had not been vaccinated.”<\/p>\n

New York Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Toni Eyssallenne said the department recommends everyone 6 months or older <\/a>should get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

It isn’t too late to get vaccinated, as officials say flu season can last through April.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While flu cases are dropping, the virus is still spreading at high rates\u00a0across New York City, officials say.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31753,2953,31754,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-94267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-flu-season","tag-health","tag-influenza","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94267","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=94267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}