Cape Girardeau County flu stats show steep drop

Mirroring a sharp decline seen nationally, cases of influenza dropped dramatically between January and February in Cape Girardeau County.

According to statistics released by the county's public health center, cases of Influenza A and B combined dropped 93% from 75 reported occurrences to five.

"We were afraid we were going to get a second (peak) of flu last month," said epidemiologist Autumn Grim, who presented February's communicable disease report to the five-member Public Health Center Board of Trustees on Tuesday, March 28.

"Typically, (flu) cases start to drop off in the first part of March," she added.

Other data (January vs. February)

• COVID-19 cases dropped 44.3% from 409 to 228 between January and February.

Cape Girardeau County is among 106 Missouri counties at "low" risk of COVID-19 infection, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data dashboard.

Only Madison, Iron, Ste. Genevieve, Warren, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and St. Louis counties are regarded as "medium" risk in Missouri for novel coronavirus spread.

No counties are at high risk.

"(The drop) could be a case of physicians no longer testing. In addition, February was a shorter month and there may just not be as much (COVID-19) circulating in the community," Grim said.

• Sexually transmitted diseases (chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis) fell from 55 total cases to 43 in February.
• Animal bites fell from 15 to 10, while cases of tuberculosis dropped precipitously from 28 to one.

"Honestly, there's really nothing alarming on the February (communicable disease) report," Grim concluded.