Why so many people in Canada seem to be sick right now [Video]

You may be seeing and hearing a lot of people coughing and sneezing around you right now.

Why? Well, Canada’s winter respiratory virus season got off a late start and now it is in full swing, officials say. That suggests more people are sick with the flu and landing in the hospital compared to years past. 

“We haven’t seen this amount of influenza cases as well as severe illness in almost a decade,” said Dr. Karim Ali, medical director for infection prevention and control and head of services for infectious diseases at Niagara Health in Ontario. 

In Quebec, Dr. Jesse Papenburg, an infectious disease specialist at Montreal Children’s Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University, says about one out of every three tests sent for influenza in the province currently comes back positive for flu, which reflects the intensity of this flu season. 

“I think this is influenza doing what influenza does, striking in the middle …