Even with a spike in cases these past few weeks, this flu season is still considered on par with last year.

Denise Werker, Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer with the Ministry, said there's only a few differences from this year to last, "The kind of activity we're experiencing and the impact of that activity, is very similar to last year. The difference is the timing of the activity is slightly different."

This year's influenza strain is also different, making younger and older people more susceptible, "The virus that is circulating so far is influence H3N2 and that strain usually disproportionately affects seniors and young children."

Werker noted that with an earlier start to the flu season, we are also seeing peak numbers earlier, "I think we have now likely peaked and we have just over 1,000 lab confirmations and we are half way through (the season). I would say this season is pretty typical."

There has been 1,029 lab confirmed cases in Saskatchewan since the start of September. Last year, at this same time, there were only 590 confirmed cases. Total confirmed cases last year totaled 1,900.

Werker said that outbreaks are also around what they were expecting for this year, "Outbreaks in long term care facilities and personal care homes and that's not unusual when you have an H3N2 year."

Last year, there were 70 long term care outbreak. There are 33 outbreaks this year, up to date.

To prevent these numbers from increasing, Werker recommends common illness protocol, "Persons who are ill do need to stay home. We encourage people who are ill to not visit friends, relatives, or long term care facilities because we don't want the respiratory virus to spread."

Regular hand washing, covering your mouth to cough or sneeze and disposing of tissues right away are also ways to prevent the spread of the flu.

And of course, getting vaccinated for the flu should help prevent illness. Last flu season, the province saw around 290,000 total vaccinations. This season, as of December 31st, there have been around 270,000 vaccines given.

Werker said that there's still time for people to get their vaccination, "Certainly for the elderly, persons who have underlying risk factors, like diabetes or asthma or chronic obstructive lung disease, and also infants. Those are the ones that are going to be most impacted by influenza."