The Guthrie County Public Health Department reports that the county had a mild influenza season. 

Director Jotham Arber says that they saw an uptick in flu shot numbers this year which could be a reason why the influenza season was categorized as mild. Arber also explains there is another theory for why flu was not very active this season. 

“But generally speaking, the dominant virus beats out the weaker of the viruses. And so we think that maybe COVID-19 helped to reduce the number of people that were super vulnerable to the flu.”

Arber adds that in the peak months of flu season, January and February, they were hit hard by a high amount of Omicron COVID-19 cases.