SAVANNAH, Ga. () — Flu numbers have reached the highest levels in 15 years, and they are still rising.

Georgia is among those states suffering, with nearly 3,000 cases and at least 10 deaths this year, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Savannah hospitals are feeling the effects.

“We did have 36 flu cases at one point in time in our hospital, which is the most I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Dr. Tim Connelly, Memorial Health’s internal medicine physician said. “Approximately 10% of E.R. visits last week within our system were for influenza-like symptoms, like upper respiratory infections. Many of those people tested positive for flu, COVID or RSV, some of them for both, meaning more than one respiratory virus.”

Connelly said they are experiencing what they call a winter surge, and they are typically operating close to full capacity.

“People that are unvaccinated for the flu, people haven’t gotten it in years, those individuals are getting it at a higher rate,” he said. “Uncontrolled diabetics. The majority of folks that are young and healthy, we typically don’t see them in the hospital with flu, although that even happens to the healthiest people.”

While their numbers are currently trending down, with 14 people currently hospitalized, Connelly anticipates a rise in cases again as a winter storm takes aim at the east coast.

“I see these storms are now in the northern part of the United States,” he told News 3. “Any time that happens, we have so much travel in Savannah. It’s such a travel town; it’s going to bring larger numbers of influenza to our community.”

We are told studies are showing that our bodies are starting to resist some of the medications used to fight the flu.

“The Journal of the American Medical Association this year looked at a series of studies showing that the Tamiflu, which we’ve used for perhaps the last decade to treat flu, is becoming slightly less effective as time goes on it, preventing hospitalization and preventing progression of flu to severe disease,” Connelly said. “There is a new medication that’s been out for several years called backs, liver or zo flus,  and that has shown promise and is still doing a good job.”

However, don’t let that stop you from taking the necessary steps to maintaining your health.

“You can get a combined flu COVID test,” Connelly said. “And the soon as you test positive, call your health care provider. We have medications for COVID. We have medications for flu. If you start them within 3 to 5 days, the majority of the time you can prevent requiring hospitalization.”