MACON, Ga. — It's that time of year when the sniffles and coughs come a bit more often because the colder weather is trickling in. That means cases of the flu will rise.
According to the CDC, early increases in seasonal influenza activity have been reported in Georgia and other south and southeast states. To prevent students from missing school, Bibb County School Districts partnered with the Macon-Bibb County Health Department to offer flu shots to students and teachers. 13WMAZ went to Sonny Carter Elementary School to see how the process worked.
"We have 70 kids getting the flu shot today, which is great. I think we're one of the highest in the district as far as children getting flu shots, and I think we have about 15 teachers," Mandy Story said.
Story is the school nurse at Carter Elementary. She told 13WMAZ, there were almost 50 students who missed school two days priors for illness. She says the younger grades are more likely to get sick than others.
"Because they aren't as good at not sharing things, they don't quite understand it. They like to put their fingers in their mouth still or whatever object might be laying on their desk," Story said.
In order for a child to get their flu shot at school, the parent needed to sign a form and return it to their school. Vega Justice is a fourth grader at the elementary. She says got the flu shot last year but was nervous.
"It wasn't bad. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but I didn't really think about it much," Vega said.
According to Georgia Public Health Department, there have been around 360 positive flu cases since last week. Justice says when she gets sick, she gets "a lot of headaches and my throat usually hurts," but says getting a flu shot keeps everyone safe.
Other school districts like Houston and Peach are also participating. Michael Hokanson with the North Central Health District told 13WMAZ, schools in the school district sign up to have flu shots administered at their school.
If you would like to get a flu shot, you can visit your local pharmacy or health department and they may give you the vaccine free of charge.