flu to soon follow. that spike coming just in time for the busy holiday season. we have had over 150,000 hospitalizations of flu. most of the elderly, some the very young. we were not exposed to flu the last couple of years. now our immune systems are seeing it again and we are seeing a pretty severe flu. the number of flu cases right now across the united states. the states and red and brown have the highest number of cases. if you see closer every state except alaska has moderate to high number of flu cases. a lot of people are getting sick right now with the flu, covid or rsv. covid testing sites have mostly closed down and you do not see the lines like you did last winter. there are still some pop up vaccination sites new york. it is the flu season. wash your hands. if you cough and sneeze, cover your mouth.
they were supposed to be taking at least one senate vote today, but then they all got slid into tomorrow because of the storm. that said, this afternoon the capitol physician the doctor for the house in the senate sent a sobering detailed letter to the democratic and republican leaders of the senate. telling them that you know, regardless of the stall, senators ought to be staying home now anyway. apparently, the covid testing sites they have set up at the u.s. capitol, the positivity rate, the rate at which tests that are coming back positive, it had been under 1%, until recently, until the omicron wave of the virus started to hit in d.c.. the capital physician advised senators today that as of right now, the positivity rate at that testing that has gone from under 1% to over 13%. he described the number of covid cases on capitol hill
but not in chicago. today, day three of no school in the windy city, the country s largest third largest school district, i should say, the teachers union wants more resources like covid testing sites and better masks. on tuesday, the last day of in-person classes, more covid cases were reported for students and staff than at any earlier point in the school year. but chicago s school and health officials say students are at even higher risk outside of school. we are all looking at the data to see that schools are not the major source of spread, but i just, you know, recognizing that remote is not likely to be something that we can keep returning to over and over again, i m hopeful that with all of these ongoing conversations and additional safety measures in place, the teachers will feel comfortable, that we will get to an agreement here, and we ll be back in-person soon. all right. in san francisco, nearly 900 teachers and staff staged a sick-out thursday.