Reopened Monday

Eufaula and Checotah schools that closed Thursday and Friday, Jan. 30-31, due to the latest flu outbreak.

According to a posting by the Eufaula School District, 22 percent of the student body and about 20 percent of the faculty were absent due to the flu.

During the closings, custodial staff disinfected and cleaned the facilities to mitigate further spreading of a variety of illnesses.

Several schools across the state were closed due to the flu outbreak, including Porum schools in Muskogee County.

Porum Superintendent Rick Antle said because of the flu, the schools in his district were closed Jan. 22, 23 and 24 but were open the following week.

Also reporting closures were Ardmore, Dewar, Lindsay, Marietta and Piedmont Public Schools as well as the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee.

Oklahoma has a high risk of contagious flu, and the numbers are only trending up, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

The number of influenza cases has spiked in the past month with hospitalizations now 227% higher than the week before Christmas. For the week ending on Jan. 18, there were 2,222 confirmed positive cases in Oklahoma, although that number only counts positive tests reported by health providers.