Courtesy Image An illustration of the coronavirus provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HILLMAN — The flu, strep throat and other viruses that have rarely been discussed over the past two years are making a comeback, according to local public health officials.

“Influenza is actively increasing across the country,” Medical Director Joshua Meyerson said during a District Health Department No. 4 meeting Tuesday in Hillman. “We are seeing a lot of other viruses going around, it’s not all COVID. It’s kind of hard to tell which one it is without being tested.”

Public health officials said the 537 doses of COVID-19 vaccinations and/or boosters that were given last month more than doubled from just over 200 doses given the previous month.

The increase was attributed to an interest in boosters and some first-time vaccinations, along with pediatric doses becoming available in that time period.

There was a decrease in the total number of cases by 34 last month, compared to the previous month, officials said.

On the subject of COVID-related deaths, officials said that in the beginning of the pandemic, the COVID-19 death numbers came in real time. Now the state is evaluating death certificates and reporting COVID-19 deaths with some lag time.

Health officials said that some of the death totals are coming from death certificate reviews from the state. Some are cases where the medical examiner has put COVID-19 on death certificates of individuals that had COVID-19 the previous year and then died later of heart or lung-related issues or illnesses and the examiner determined the death as COVID-19 related and lists that on the death certificate.

Health officials also said schools have been notified by the state that if they continue to universally mask, then they can move away from contact tracing.

The state’s instructions to the health departments are to continue masking, getting tested and students staying home if they feel sick for the full 10 days, health officials said.

Health Department No. 4 is adding more pop-up testing and vaccination events in the coming month and will be posting those on its website.

The pop-up site that previously operated at Alpena Community College has been moved to the Alpena County Fairgrounds.

“It’s clear that we are struggling to out vaccinate the virus, so we really need to look at different strategies,” Denise Bryan, administrative health officer, District Health Department No. 4, said.

“There is no special day that’s gonna come that we are just gonna be done in our near future,” Bryan said.

Officials say they are trying to obtain more free home testing kits, like the ones made available around Thanksgiving. People can get tested for free pop-up testing locations.

President Biden announced plans Tuesday to send an emergency response team to Michigan and deliver 500 million free, at-home rapid tests nationwide,” according to a press release from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.