Post-holiday respiratory infection surge in Orenburg amid Hong Kong flu

In the Orenburg region, after the New Year holidays and school breaks, a twofold increase in flu and acute respiratory infections has been recorded. The regional office of Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) attributes this to obvious reasons— the return of citizens to workplaces and studies.

It should be noted that according to laboratory monitoring data, the coronavirus situation is within normal limits, and among flu virus strains, influenza A(H3N2) continues to dominate— the so-called «Hong Kong» variant of the flu season, which 56.RU has repeatedly reported on.

A slight reduction in the incidence level in Orenburg at the end of 2025 (when such flu was raging across the country) was helped by remote learning— students in grades 2-8 studied from home from November 27 to December 8. And in Orsk, students of the same grade levels switched to this form of education on December 4 and studied via the Internet until December 13.

We remind you about the Hong Kong flu— you can read all about this variant of the contagion that has come to the Orenburg region in our extensive article.