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Emergency departments across the U.S. have been slammed in recent weeks by an onslaught of flu visits, forcing hospitals to devise new spaces to house patients, to restrict visitors and to postpone elective surgeries. Visits to hospital emergency departments, urgent care centers and other outpatient clinics by people with flu symptoms have been skyrocketing for several weeks. As of mid-January, such visits had surpassed every flu season except 2009-10, when a new flu strain caused a global pandemic. The dominant strain this season, H3N2, is particularly virulent, and the vaccine isn’t very effective against it. (Toy, 2/1)

A Georgia county coroner says a 15-year-old girl is the state's first flu-related child death this season. Coweta County Coroner Richard Hawk told news outlets that Kira Molina died Tuesday at an Atlanta hospital. He says the Newnan High School student had initially tested negative for the flu upon developing symptoms last week, but was found unresponsive on Sunday. She was hospitalized in Newnan and then airlifted to Atlanta. (2/1)

Georgia’s number of influenza-related deaths has now reached 37, and state health officials say that the brutal flu season may not yet have peaked. ...The deaths, up from the 25 total reported Friday, include a child who was between ages 12 and 18, Public Health officials said Wednesday. (Miller, 1/31)