![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/REG-L-DebraPowell-1.jpg\")
Dr. Debra Powell<\/p>\nThe holiday season brings with it a host of happy things.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the friends and family, the gathering for festive parties and meals. There\u2019s Santa\u2019s sleighride and the smiles on children\u2019s faces from the presents he delivers.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s joy and merriment and goodwill.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s something else the holidays bring: sickness.<\/p>\n
All of those office parties, all of those family feasts, all of those trips to the store for holiday shopping, all of those ball-drop watch parties are perfect breeding grounds for infectious disease. The result is a post-holiday spike in cases of influenza.<\/p>\n
According to the state Department of Health, flu cases began to tick upward around Thanksgiving. They hit a peak early this month, with just over 14,500 reported cases statewide for the week ending Jan. 6.<\/p>\n
The situation has tapered off a bit, with only just under 10,500 cases reported the week ending Jan. 10, the most recent week for which data is available.<\/p>\n
Local health experts say the numbers in Berks County mirrored those statewide but warned the recent decrease doesn\u2019t mean people should let down their guard.<\/p>\n
The local picture<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the holidays, we definitely saw cases go up,\u201d said Dr. Debra Powell, chief of the division of infectious disease at Reading Hospital. \u201cThe good news is, we saw a peak last week and the numbers have come back down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell said Reading Hospital last week had 20 patients hospitalized with flu, down from 40 the previous week.<\/p>\n
Dr. Debra Powell<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a normalish spike, it seems fairly typical,\u201d she said of the post-holiday numbers. \u201cIt\u2019s not unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Rutul Dalal, medical director for infectious diseases at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center, said his hospital has seen much the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a lot of respiratory viruses, as would be expected,\u201d he said, explaining that cases of COVID and RSV also saw increases following the holiday.<\/p>\n
Dalal said the stretch from Dec. 23 to the new year had been the worst, with flu cases exceeding what St. Joseph saw during the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
One of the likely reasons for that is the current dominant substrain, Influenza A, was not included in this year\u2019s vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came from Europe, and it came in June after the vaccine was already made,\u201d Dalal said, explaining the vaccines for the Northern Hemisphere are created based on the strains predominant during the Southern Hemisphere\u2019s earlier flu season.<\/p>\n
Powell said that more than 90% of current flu cases are from the A substrain. Statewide data bears that out, showing that during the week ending Jan. 10 there were 9,956 flu A cases and just 514 flu B cases.<\/p>\n
A long road ahead<\/p>\n
Despite improving recent numbers, Powell and Dalal cautioned that doesn\u2019t mean flu season is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not out of the woods yet,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n
Powell said the flu season typically stretches to March and sometimes even April. Which means there is plenty of time for cases to head back up.<\/p>\n
Dalal concurred, saying the recent dip in cases likely won\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can still come up again,\u201d he said, adding that health experts are predicting another spike in the next week or two.<\/p>\n
Powell and Dalal said the likelihood of the flu cases \u2014 along with those of RSV and COVID \u2014 shooting back up means people should continue to be cautious.<\/p>\n
Each stressed that anyone who hasn\u2019t received the flu vaccine yet still has time to do so. Even though it specifically cover the current predominant strain, they said, it still can make an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flu shot isn\u2019t a perfect match, but it does provide some protection for hospitalization,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n
![\"Berks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768821549_96_TMC-L-FluShots07.jpg\")
Berks health officials stressed that anyone who hasn’t gotten the flu vaccine yet still has time to do so. (Jane Therese\/ Special to The Morning Call)<\/p>\n
Dalal said the vaccine protects against other subtypes and can help prevent severe symptoms from flu B.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you do get this new subtype, it will diminish the worsening of symptoms and severe outcomes,\u201d he said. \u201cI would still recommend people getting the vaccine. It will take the edge off of the infection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dalal warned that it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to fully take effect, which means people should plan ahead if they\u2019re thinking about getting it.<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/REG-L-RutulDalal-1.jpg\")
Dr. Rutul Dalal<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re planning on meeting with family, going on vacation, getting on an airplane \u2014 especially if you\u2019re high risk \u2014 you should plan to take it two weeks prior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Along with getting vaccinated, Powell and Dala urged people to practice good hygiene, making sure to wash their hands, cover the mouths and noses when they sneeze or cough and practice social distancing if they\u2019re sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re sick, stay home,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n
Powell also recommended using sanitizing wipes on items you frequently touch, like cellphones, keyboards, door knobs or grocery cart handles. She said the flu is spread through droplets that can hide on those types of things.<\/p>\n
Powell and Dalal also suggested stocking up on flu tests so that people feeling under the weather can determine if they\u2019re infected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re commercially available at grocery stores and drugstores,\u201d Dalal said, adding that they should be purchased ahead of time so someone doesn\u2019t have to go in public when they\u2019re already sick.<\/p>\n
To track statewide and regional data for the flu visit pa.gov\/agencies\/health<\/a>. For national data visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at cdc.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The holiday season brings with it a host of happy things. There\u2019s the friends and family, the gathering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1057,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-90688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news","16":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}