Flu season has just started and it's already hitting the Calgary zone of Alberta Health Services, which includes Cochrane, fairly hard.

AHS released their first weekly update for the 2017-2018 influenza season yesterday (November 2) and it shows the majority of cases of the flu have occurred in the Calgary zone.

The AHS stats says of the 257 laboratory confirmed cases of Influenza A, 151 of them are in the Calgary zone.  That compares to just 29 cases in the Edmonton zone. 

Of 42 lab-confirmed cases of Influenza B or of a strain not yet know, 30 were in the Calgary zone.

90 Albertans have been admitted to the hospital with influenza.  59 of them in the Calgary zone,

So far this season, three people with lab-confirmed influenza have died in the province and two of the cases were in the Calgary zone.

Since influenza immunizations started on October 23rd, AHS says 424,401 doses of influenza vaccine has been administered.  157,543 flu shots have been given in the Calgary zone.  

Cochrane pharmacies and the Cochrane Community Health Centre are all reporting a steady stream of people looking to get their flu shots early in the season.

A spokesperson at the Health Centre said, "I thought it might not be as busy with all the pharmacies giving the shots but the clinics have been quite busy," 

A pharmacist at Mark's No Frills Pharmacy indicated that they have done over 400 immunizations to date.   

And Reid Kimmett, the Operations Manager at Two Pharmacy, says the number of customers coming in for the shot has been steady.  "We've given over 500 flu shots so far."

Kimmett says, so far, not many people have come by for prescriptions related to the flu.  He thinks, now that the weather has changed, that demand is bound to pick up."