Someone feels sick.
Is it the flu? COVID? Some type of common cold?
The Ottawa County Health Department now offers a Weekly Respiratory Illness Tracker that might help figure it out.
“During cold and flu season, people want to know what's going around in their own community, not just across the state or across the country. So, this dashboard gives people a really quick snapshot of what's going on locally that can be understood in seconds instead of having to take a long time to read through a whole report. “
Medical Director Dr. Gwen Unzicker says the dashboard provides real-time trends for various illnesses, allowing residents to make informed decisions regarding community activities or testing when they’re feeling ill.
“It can help our healthcare providers know what is a more likely explanation for their patient’s symptoms, and that can help guide what tests they might decide to order, as well as what treatments they might recommend.”
What’s the current dashboard status?
“We have been seeing a pretty high level of influenza activity over the last few weeks. Fortunately, that seems to be slightly decreasing both across the county and across the state, but the activity level is still high.”
As for the flu shot, Unzicker says despite a new variant circulating, the current vaccine is showing strong results at preventing hospitalization, particularly in children.
“It's definitely not too late to get a flu vaccine. Flu does often continue through the spring, so getting vaccinated now still provides protection during these cold winter and early spring months.”
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