After Labor Day, the annual flu-shot campaign should start climbing into high gear. In the meantime, the Minnesota Department of Health has released its official re-cap of the 2011-2012 flu season.
The big picture: it was relatively mild and late, with cases peaking in March and continuing to dribble in through May. (This doesn't count the new strain of swine-flu, which arrived in Minnesota this month.)
Here's the tally:
• 552 people were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza (compared to
972 during the 2010-11 season).
• 91 outbreaks in schools (compared to 218 in 2010-2011).
• 41 outbreaks in nursing homes (54 in 2010-2011).
• 33 influenza-related deaths (70 in 2010-2011).
