MILWAUKEE — Months after cases of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 climbed to kick-start the winter months in Wisconsin, cases tied to various respiratory viruses and illnesses have fallen off as we prepare for spring to begin, though Wisconsin health care providers have recently seen an uptick in certain cases of influenza.

“We’re getting there, [almost] out of the woods,” said Brian Simmons, infection control practitioner at Gundersen Health System. “Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve rapidly declined in the amount of flu and RSV that we were seeing at the start of the year, but just this past week, at least in our area of the state, we have seen a few more cases of Influenza B, and that usually lags behind the Influenza A season, so we’ll be interested in seeing what the next few weeks bring.”

Overall, there have been continued signs of progress on the respiratory illness front.

“The thing we always say with infection control is doing good hand hygiene,” Simmons said. “If you’re traveling in an area with a lot of respiratory illnesses, we are still seeing a lot of viruses that cause the common cold out there and there are some things such as strep that we’re seeing out in the communities. If we could take care of our hands, you’ll do a really good job of preventing those [viruses] from getting you ill.”

Watch the full interview above.