The News10NBC Team details breaking News, Traffic and Weather.<\/p>\n
ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2013 Medical leaders in the Rochester region are warning the community about an early arrival of the flu season and a new flu strain<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Monroe County, 410 people had confirmed flu cases for the week ending in Nov. 29. That\u2019s a 51% increase compared to the week before. You can see the latest flu numbers on the state\u2019s Flu Tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doctors say the new strain of the flu came out after this year\u2019s flu shots, but if you already got vaccinated, you are still covered. The new strain may spread slightly faster and cause more symptoms, but getting the flu shot will help protect you from getting the flu and from spreading it to others. <\/p>\n At Strong Memorial Hospital, doctors say they had about six flu patients a week and a half ago. As of Monday, they\u2019re at 23. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not just the flu that doctors are talking about \u2013 they want people to also bear in mind COVID-19 vaccines are still important. There are about 15 patients at Strong with COVID-19. Doctors say current numbers tell them we can expect a moderate to severe flu season this year. Dr. Michael Apostolakos, chief medical officer at UR Medicine, said now is the time to get the vaccine.<\/p>\n \u201cAs mentioned, one of the biggest ways we can reduce the risk of getting influenza, spreading influenza and becoming sick from influenza is to get the vaccine,\u201d Apostolakos said.<\/p>\n Dr. Rob Mayo, chief medical officer at Rochester Regional Health, said this the flu is not only isolated to the Rochester community, but it is affecting the state at large.<\/p>\n Doctors also mentioned how stressed healthcare systems already are. Emergency rooms are busy, especially this time of year. So when more people get their flu and COVID-19 shots, that opens up more space in the hospital for doctors to see other patients.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re experiencing things like shortness of breath, chest pain or you\u2019re not able to keep fluids down \u2013 doctors say head to the emergency room. Otherwise, they\u2019re encouraging people to seek alternative forms of healthcare \u2013 urgent care, a primary care physician or even a virtual visit.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure if your symptoms warrant a trip to the emergency room \u2013 doctors say it\u2019s worth checking with your primary care physician first.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0flu numbers<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0new flu strain<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Monroe County<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rochester<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The News10NBC Team details breaking News, Traffic and Weather. ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2013 Medical leaders in the Rochester region…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-340818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}