Okinawa is in midst of flu epidemic

The Ministry of Health announced Friday that the seasonal influenza epidemic has now spread throughout the country having began the second earliest after 2009 since the ministry started keeping records in 1999.

According to ministry figures based on the number of patients visiting a doctor for influenza, Okinawa has relatively the most people affected with the epidemic, followed by Tochigi, Fukui, Hokkaido and Iwate. The number of people suffering from the flu is still increasing.

Ministry officials call for people to prevent infecting others by regularly washing hands and wearing a flu mask.

This year’s epidemic started more than a month earlier than last year.

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14:41 29 Mar , 2024