Peachtree – Some students got their winter break early, but many were too sick to enjoy those extra days off from school.
Peachtree Elementary School closed Thursday and Friday due to a flu outbreak. According to Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Jeana Conley, 20 percent of the student population and 25 percent of the teachers were sick.
She added that teachers spent Thursday disinfecting classrooms.
“Hopefully, we’ll come back strong in January,” Conley said. Peachtree was the only school that closed in the county.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, all regions across the country are seeing elevated levels of flu-like sickness. It estimates the flu has caused at least 2.6
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million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations and 1,300 deaths this season.
In Cherokee County, 2.5 percent of the population had the flu as of Dec. 14. Rebecca Hand, communicable disease nurse at the Cherokee County Health Department, said that’s about 1 percent higher than last year at this time.
The CDC estimates that flu activity is likely to increase and stay elevated for several weeks. Flu symptoms include a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or feeling feverish, a cough and/or sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, headaches and/or body aches, chills, fatigue and nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.
To prevent the flu, the health department recommends washing hands, getting the flu vaccine, avoiding being around anyone who is sick and staying home if sick.
“Washing hands and the flu vaccine are the best prevention,” Hand said.
The health department still has plenty of vaccines available at a cost of $25.