Godley, Comanche, Euless Treetops School Close after Moreflu-NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Several Texas school districts temporarily close to disinfect their facilities following an increase in disease -related absenteeism.

Godley Independent School District will be closed until February 3rd after reporting a 70% to 80% participation rate across all campuses.

“Tuesday was our last school day and we had about 650 students out with the flu and more more who left all day,” Jeff Meador said. Meador is Chief Communications Officer for Godley Isd. “We also had employees out. So at least 60 some who still didn’t feel good that was at work or some who had to leave to take care of their own children.”

The district said they will not make this decision easily and will spend this time for deep clean buildings and buses.

“Our depotors plus some extra hands all work on different campuses, do deep cleaning and just disinfect to make sure we take care of bacteria that are on the services,” Meador said.

They advised that students in leisure examinations contact their coach or sponsor of updates on practice and meetings. Youth Athletic Events are canceled until February 3rd for all campuses.

Euless’s Treetop School International joined Godley, temporarily closing until February 3rd to disinfect classrooms, cafeteria, gyms and changing rooms.

Comanche Independent School District said they closed 28-29. January and would reopen Thursday.

DFW Hospital Council President and CEO Stephen Love said these absences match local hospital trends with increased influenza-related access.

“Yes, our children’s hospitals certainly see increased visits to the emergency room, and it even affects some northern Texas school districts,” said Love. “Our adult acute care hospitals also see an increase in influenza patients in the emergency department. We are in the flu season. “

According to health experts, the tip of the influenza cases came much later than usual.

“It’s a significant increase week during the week. I want to look bigger than a 75% increase from previous weeks,” Dr. Preeti Sharma, Associate Professor of Pediatry at UT Southwestern at Children’s Health. “In the last few years our highest number of flu -s have really been more in the middle of the end of December.”

Children’s Health said they saw a more than an increase of 80% in just one week.

During the week of January 19, Children’s Health saw the following respiratory system, which includes all outpatients, outpatients and oaths:

1. 783 influenza A cases, an increase of 83% from the week before
2. 165 RSV cases, a decrease of 20% from the week before
3. 46 Covid-19 cases, about the same number of cases from the week before

During the week of January 12, Children’s Health saw the following respiratory system, which includes all outpatients, outpatients and oaths:

1. 425 influenza A cases, an increase of 28% from the week before
2. 207 RSV cases, a decrease of 30% from the week before
3. 34 Covid-19 cases, about the same number of cases from the week before

The steep climb has also had an effect across local pharmacies and medicine.

“We have a hard time keeping a lot of our over disk (medicine),” said Heather Vlassis, pharmacist, who is responsible for Parrone Pharmacy. “The flu numbers are so high that it is really hard to even keep supply to people who have even tested positively.”

“Tamiflu will definitely be when you see your doctor as you need a prescription for it. But it should be taken within 48 hours. If you don’t take it within 48 hours it won’t help you,” Vlassis said . “ Xofluza will definitely be one that you can take if you were exposed to help (and) to prevent the flu from replicating in your body. So you won’t see signs or symptoms if you take it early enough. “

Some experts attribute partly to the tip of the low flu vaccination rates.

“We’re on a low time for influenza shots. So the biggest thing is to get out there. It’s not too late to get a flu shot,” Vlassis said.

Dr. Sharma repeated it is not too late for influenza vaccinations.

“It takes about two weeks to reach some kind of your highest immunity from the flu vaccination, but you never know how long it will last. So it can still help,” Sharma said. “We don’t know how long this influenza tip will last, and we don’t know when to see other strains of influenza like influenza b begin to circulate in society.”