MU Health Care encourages people to stay up-to-date on flu, COVID-19 vaccinations
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Physicians with MU Health Care are stressing the importance of getting updated influenza and COVID-19 vaccines ahead of flu season.
The Sewershed Surveillance Program -– which is a collaborative effort between the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Service, Department of Natural Resources and University of Missouri -- monitors the number of COVID-19 cases statewide. According to dataset, as of Sept. 9, there were 148 cases reported statewide. Sewershed reported 87 cases for that day.
Columbia-Boone County Public Health and Human Services says it has seen a decrease in cases.
"As of the 14th of September, we had 98 confirmed cases," Columbia PHHS spokesman Austin Krohn said. "It did come down in terms of confirmed cases from the previous week."
Dr. Laura Morris, a family physician and chief medical officer for ambulatory care with MU Health Care, said vaccines have been updated to closely match the virus that caused a spike in COVID-19 cases over the summer.
"The new vaccine has been updated to more closely match the virus that's circulating and actually this year the flu vaccine has been updated as well," Morris said. "We do recommend that everyone update their COVID vaccine and receive a dose of this year's updated formulation."
The newly updated flu vaccine is a trivalent vaccine rather than a quadrivalent one like in years past.
"It is matched to three of the different types of flu that are more closely circulating," Morris said. "They actually remove the fourth type of flu that we hadn't seen in several years."
However, Morris says both the flu and COVID-19 vaccines have a lifespan, which means people need to stay up to date on their vaccinations.
The updated vaccines are recommended for people ages 6 months old and older, older people and people with risk factors that could cause them to fall ill from these viruses. Morris thinks there will be an increase in cases within the coming months.
"This fall, I think we're going to see, cases probably increase and flu has not come into strong presence yet here in Mid-Missouri, so typically we'll see flu cases start up at the end of October, kind of push up during the holidays," Morris said.
MU Health Care is hosting many flu and COVID vaccination events throughout October.
Saturday, Sept. 28 will be the first of three vaccine drive-thru events at South Providence Medical Park. That will start at 9 a.m. and run through 2 p.m.
Also on Saturday, a walk-in vaccination event will take place from 8 a.m.-noon in Jefferson City inside the Madison Street Medical Building.
