Recommendation to request City Council to receive and file a report from the Department of Health and Human Services on the status of the current flu levels in Long Beach and Southern California, detailing steps Long Beach residents can take to prevent contracting and spreading the illness.
Motion case. Thank you. Item 16, please. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilwoman Gonzales, Councilman Andrews and Councilmember Urunga. Recommendation to receive and file a report from the Department of Health and Human Services on the status of current flu levels. Thank you. Thank you. And this. This motion tonight is about really receiving a presentation on the flu. Every year we go through our process of helping to educate the community, and it's led by our health department. And this year, it's particularly important that we focus on the recent flu, given that this is one of our most aggressive youth flu seasons in a decade. There was an article weeks ago that really highlighted sort of how aggressive it's been in Southern California. And weeks ago there were about 40 deaths by the flu. But it called out at that point that two cities, two large cities in L.A. County, didn't have any deaths to the flu. And they were the two cities that had their own public health departments. So it was Pasadena, Long Beach. The statistics have changed since then, but I think it's important that we do raise this up and we highlight our health department. We asked for a report in front of the full council and in front of the public about this year's flu season. So at that so at this point, I'm just going to ask for a staff report. Mayor Councilmembers. I'm going to turn this over to our director of Health. And Human Services, Kelly Collopy, and also our health officer, Dr. Anissa Davis. So Kelly and Anita. Good evening. One of the things about tonight is we've. Been able to show you sort of the breadth of some of the. Work that we're doing. So from black infant health to violence prevention, and now we'll be sharing about the flu. So Dr. Anissa Davis, who's your health officer, will be presenting and will be open for questions after. Good evening, Honorable Vice Mayor and Council Members, thank you for giving me this opportunity to present information on this year's flu back flu season. My closeness to the mike. They. Each flu season runs from approximately the early fall to spring. The dominant influenza virus strain this season is H3N2. This strain of influenza virus is associated with more hospitalizations and deaths in young children and seniors. The flu season this year began earlier than usual and appears to be widespread and particularly intense, with record high percentages of people visiting health care providers, urgent care and emergency rooms for flu like illness. We don't know if the season has peaked yet and there are numerous different strains that are circulating. So we could see more cases in the future from different strains. The vaccine efficacy rate is currently unknown, but predicted to be between ten and 30% effective for H3N2. It's still strongly recommended that you get vaccinated, however, because vaccination can decrease the severity of the flu and your chances of being hospitalized from it. And it's not too late to get vaccinated. This slide shows some of the surveillance data that is collected by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services. The Orange Line shows the number of cases of flu for this flu season so far, and the blue line shows the number of cases for last year's season. You can see that this season started rising much earlier than last season, and we've quickly surpassed last year's numbers to date. In the city of Long Beach, there has been a 78% increase in reported flu cases compared to last year. There have also been 13 cases of patients younger than 65 who had to be in the ICU and had the flu. And there have been three influenza associated deaths in people younger than 65. All of the people who died were adults who had underlying medical and medical conditions. We've also investigated eight flu outbreaks in hospital in long term care facilities and Long Beach. The Health Department's flu response is comprised of surveillance, education and outreach and immunization activities or surveillance of Long Beach hospitals indicated that Long Beach emergency departments and hospitals were heavily impacted with high numbers of patients seeking services. There were reports early in the season of shortages of ventilators and masks at one facility, but these needs were quickly resolved by the Disaster Resource Center, a regional center tasked with supporting surge capacity for hospitals in the Greater Long Beach area. There have been no further resource issues among hospitals, to our knowledge. Tamiflu is an antiviral treatment for the flu. There were reports initially of shortages of the generic form of Tamiflu, but the branded product is currently widely available. Widely. As far as disease surveillance and outbreak response, the health department works closely with neighboring jurisdictions and the state to track flu activity regionally. Besides monitoring flu cases, we also investigate outbreaks in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities this season to provide further support. We also held an influenza update for Skilled Nursing Facilities Webinar to review influenza prevention and outbreak protocols. Vaccinating individuals to prevent or lessen the severity of the flu is a mainstay of the department's efforts to protect the people who work and live in Long Beach. So far this season, nearly 3500 flu vaccines have been administered to residents and city staff, with an additional 3500 doses distributed to community partners and neighboring jurisdictions. The Health Department has held or participated in 25 different flu vaccination clinics this season at local parks, senior center, senior centers, Cal State, Long Beach, among other places, Red Cross nurses and the Medical Reserve Corps members were invaluable partners in this effort. In addition to Health Department activities, the Occupational Health Clinic also vaccinated 481 employees. Our largest community event is our free flu vaccination clinic done at the main health department on Grand. Each year, usually in October. This is an annual tradition going back several years. This year, with our first ever drive thru vaccination clinic where we gave over 600 vaccinations in 5 hours because of the severity of this year's flu season. We held a second drive thru clinic in January where we vaccinated over 150 residents and staff. Both clinics were huge successes with a great deal of positive feedback about the drive thru. About the drive thru component. People really liked that and I just want to shout out four of my staff members who were instrumental in making this a success of this new way of giving vaccinations. If you raise your hand, think. In closing here, our recommendations for preventing and treating the flu. It's not too late to get vaccinated. Vaccine supply is plentiful and widely available, and it's one of the easiest ways that you can prevent yourself from getting the flu or lessening the severity of it. Take antiviral drugs if your doctor prescribes them. The sooner you start to take them after you get the flu, the better they work. Limit contact with others if you're sick. Stay home from work if you're sick and keep kids home from school if they're sick and washing your hands often with soap and water is still one of the best ways to prevent the flu and a variety of other infections. And avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. This concludes my report. I'm open for questions. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Again, we just thought it was important that we lift that up and highlight it, given the aggressiveness of the flu this season. I don't see any Councilman Andrew's comment. But one mike clinic. I don't think your mike is on. I just want to thank you for connecting the vaccination clinic and education for the community. And this is extremely important, you know, for so many of us, because a lot of people just think it's a joke, but other people are dying. So I think it's very important that we got this update. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Pierce. Yeah, I wanted to say I think it's awesome that we had a drive thru clinic and that's fantastic. Awesome. And both of those clinics where they done at the health department offer, Willow. Both of them. Okay. Is there any talk about maybe one in North Long Beach and one east side? Do you want to do? Should I? So next year we're planning on having it at Long Beach City College. So over there by Veterans Stadium. Okay. So a little bit closer. Great. And then is there a National Handwashing Day? Is that in flu season? I don't know when it is. Should be every day. It should be every day. I agree. It should be every day. Okay. Multiple times a day, I hope. Okay. Thank you for all your hard work, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Any public comment on item? Please come forward. Thank you. Thank you, Jane Templin, again. I just have a question of why the recording stops at age 65. Well, let's go ahead and hear the answer to that. Oh, I need to hear that. I can respond. Yeah. Okay. That's a great question. So because those that are over 65 usually have a lot of other variables that go into how they do with the flu. We really track those that are younger than 65 to get a good measure of the severity of the flu season itself. Good response. Thank you. Okay. Anything else. You think? 2 minutes. All right. Thank you for your time. Okay. No further public comment. Members, please cast your vote.