Public Health now reports overall influenza activity in addition to its COVID-19 Risk Index for Sudbury and districts

Today, Public Health Sudbury & Districts enhanced its online reporting of respiratory illnesses by including a new Respiratory Activity Report to its COVID-19 Risk Index to feature overall influenza activity in the region. The public can now consult the COVID-19 Risk Index and Respiratory Activity Report for information on confirmed influenza cases and outbreaks, in addition to the overall COVID-19 risk level and related data, to help make informed decisions about actions they can take to prevent the spread of illness.

“We anticipated a tougher fall as we continued to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and entered a difficult respiratory illness season. One of our roles and responsibilities at Public Health is to monitor health risks through surveillance and keep people informed to help them make decisions to protect themselves,” said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Medical Officer of Health for Public Health Sudbury & Districts. “We continue to monitor local and provincial indicators and the enhanced COVID-19 Risk Index and Respiratory Activity Report allows us to share more information. Together, we can make it more difficult for illness to spread by using a risk-based approach to inform our personal decisions,” said Dr. Sutcliffe.

The Ontario Respiratory Pathogen Bulletin is used to inform the four new local influenza activity levels. The levels are green or no activity, yellow or sporadic activity, orange or localized activity, and red or widespread activity.

While anyone can get influenza, the very young, the elderly and people with certain medical conditions are at higher risk of complications. Public Health recommends everyone over six months of age get the flu shot to help keep themselves and their community healthy. Public Health will use the COVID-19 Risk Index and Respiratory Activity Report to share the most current recommendations to prevent the spread of illness. As community transmission and risk levels increase, our personal protective measures should also increase—get back to basics such as masking, getting a COVID-19 booster dose, and staying away from others if unwell.

Public Health will update the local COVID-19 Risk Index and Respiratory Activity Report by Wednesday morning, every week. It is a complement to many other data and reports regularly made available by Public Health to help the community understand the burden of illness in our communities. For more information about COVID-19, influenza, and the measures you can take to protect yourself and others, please visit phsd.ca or call 705.522.9200 (toll-free 1.866.522.9200).