With the official start of winter right around the corner, cold and flu season has unfortunately already arrived. Warren County Health Department Administrator Jenna Link explains the illnesses being seen locally that have shown up in the City of Monmouth’s wastewater report:
“We have been watching that over the last month and looking for any peaks; COVID has kind of always been there to some extent, but we definitely are seeing some peaks with influenza A in the middle of November. If you think about that, that was right before Thanksgiving break and everybody gets together and now we are back in school, so what happens between now and Christmas. The other thing that we saw a slight detect with RSV. It is really important to keep on top of all of these things that we have talked about. Pneumonia, there is a vaccination for certain types of pneumonia and depending on your age group they recommend getting those. There is the flu vaccine, there’s COVID boosters, there’s immunizations for RSV, typically more for the young children and older adults. All of these are tools that can help reduce the severity of symptoms if you are someone that is immunocompromised.”
