Flu continues to cause trouble in South Carolina, Georgia

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The flu virus is hanging on in the U.S., including in Georgia and South Carolina.

The numbers are down a bit in the two-state region from where they stood a few weeks ago, but South Carolina remains near the top of the chart nationally, with Georgia not far behind.

South Carolina is one of six states with a rating of “very high” flu activity.

Georgia is one of nearly 20 states with a “high” rating.

Relative to other states, that’s about where Georgia and South Carolina have stood during the five weeks of the flu season so far.

Latest flu map available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(Contributed)

Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say even though there’s been a continued national drop in flu hospitalizations, other indicators are up — including the number of states with high or very high levels for respiratory illnesses.

“Nationally, we can say we’ve peaked, but on a regional level it varies,” said the CDC’s Alicia Budd. “A couple of regions haven’t peaked yet.”

Patient traffic has eased a bit in the Southeast and parts of the West Coast, but flu-like illnesses seem to be proliferating in the Midwest and have even rebounded a bit in some places.

Flu generally peaks in the U.S. between December and February. National data suggests this season’s peak came around late December, but a second surge is always possible. That’s happened in other flu seasons, with the second peak often — but not always — lower than the first, Budd said.

So far, the season has been relatively typical, Budd said. According to CDC estimates, since the beginning of October, there have been at least 22 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations, and 15,000 deaths from flu. The agency said 74 children have died of flu.

COVID-19 illnesses seem to have peaked at around he same time as flu. CDC data indicates coronavirus-caused hospitalizations haven’t hit the same levels they did at the same point during the past three winters. COVID-19 is putting more people in the hospital than flu, CDC data shows.