Influenza

In the last year since the coronavirus pandemic began, many people have made an effort to socially distance in some way and it’s not just impacted the spread of COVID-19. 

Dallas County Health Department Public Information Officer Ann Cochran says the various measures that people have been taking to protect themselves from COVID-19 are also effective at preventing other illnesses. 

“Due to so many people staying socially distanced, wearing a mask when they are in public, washing their hands more often, all of those things are also preventions for flu and the number of flu cases here in Dallas County and throughout Iowa is much lower than usual.”

Even with Governor Kim Reynolds relaxing mask mandates and social distancing guidelines Cochran still encourages people to do what they can to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health for the week ending in February 6th, overall flu activity remains low in the State and they did not identify any flu positive specimens from specimens submitted.