Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
A number of school districts in the region have closed due to illnesses in recent weeks, including Middletown Christian Schools and Calvary Christian School.
Officials at the 10,000-student Fairfield Schools said no classes or building have been closed but they are closely monitoring the situation.
Betsy Fuller, spokeswoman for Lakota Schools - which enrolls about 18,000 - said officials there are watching closely for any unusual spikes in student or staff absenteeism due to flu.
“We have seen an uptick in student and staff absences due to illness since returning from winter break. However, it has not been beyond our typical absences for this time of year,” said Fuller.
Edgewood struggled with bus routes this week as many drivers called in sick.
Flu activity in the state is high, but has slowed from previous weeks. The latest data showed those increases slowing down with only a 3.2% increase in flu-related hospitalizations in Ohio.
“For us, it’s calmed down a little bit. It was a lot higher around Christmas time,” said Dr. Mark Williams, a family doctor at Premier Health.
Statewide, outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms have gone down by 17.1% in the latest flu report, which accounts for about 5.1% of all outpatient visits. Emergency department visits for fevers and flu-like symptoms decreased by 22.3% in Ohio.
Nationally, 5.4% of visits to a health care provider were for respiratory illness, which is a downward trend, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Deaths due to the flu accounted for 1.5% of deaths in the U.S., which is up, the CDC says. There were 11 influenza-associated deaths of children occurring the most recent week for a total of 27 pediatric deaths this season. None of those have been in Ohio.
Michael Clark contributed to this story.
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