happy New Year it's officially 2024 and many of you are back to work back to school and back to the germs the CDC says that our region is very high for cases of covid-19 flu RSV and other respiratory illnesses there's also a new covid variant that's dominating the new cases although that comes with some good news it's not as severe as some of the previous variants senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has more on all the germs that we're bringing into the new year you know you're sitting on a train to Manhattan to go see the tree and you think to yourself wow a third of this train is coughing Rutgers David Cennimo figures many folks traveling over the river and Via packed flights over the holiday shared more than just hugs is the season for Respiratory viruses like covid flu and RSV to flourish especially in New Jersey we're seeing a lot of cases right now A CDC map shows respiratory virus infection rates surging across Ross the nation especially down south and very high in the New Jersey New York City metro areas helping drive that spike in New Jersey influenza New Jersey seen a rapid rise in cases of influenza type A H1N1 with more than a thousand cases reported that's out of over 6,700 flu cases Statewide in the weekending December 23rd we never know when flu season's going to hit but we know that when it hits it hits fast uh and that's what we're seeing that's what we've seen in the past years and certainly holiday Associated travel is always going to be a risk um and I think we're still a bit extra vulnerable this year why cineo sites an apparent slump and vaccination rates for both flu and covid and the viruses can seemingly attack in tandem explains Montclair epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera that if you are sick your immune system is compromised you are more susceptible to other illness and so we are seeing this compounding this potential for you know the Dual epidemic or triple demic as we've thought about in the past New Jersey covid rate also shows a holiday Spike with more than 7,400 cases reported the week ending December 30th partly responsible a new covid variant called jn1 which the CDC identified in almost 60% of Jersey and New York City's most recent cases it's highly transmissible but apparently less severe Silvera says in the United States the number of cases that have been typed to be jn1 have been increasing um I think impact in terms of hospitalization and death versus impact in terms of illness are two different things the World Health Organization called jn1 quote low risk adding while there's a rapid increase in jn1 infections and likely increase in cases available limited evidence does not suggest that the associated disease severity is higher as compared to other circulating variants the good news is that it's not 20120 again and there is a lot of immunity in the community both due to Natural infection and vaccine the combination so people are getting covid but they're not as sick on average as they were before much less sick there there are fewer hospitalizations there are fewer deaths the CDC reports respiratory viruses now account for some 8% of emergency room visits the latest New Jersey Hospital census with 62 of 70 facilities reporting showed more than 1140 covid patients 124 of them in the ICU as of yesterday not surprisingly many hospitals across the state have reinstated mask requirements and that's not a bad idea in crowded venues the public health experts say they also urge it's not too late to get vaccinated Americans are eager to pop pills but not as eager to take vaccines he says vaccine resistance does persist I'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News [Music]