This is Brad Milkey, host the Start Here podcast with ABC News.

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Now from Times Square, here's what you need to know.

Good afternoon to you and welcome to what you need to know on this Tuesday.

It is cold.

Oh, beyond cold.

I'm not miserable. You're not remember this weather, right?

No.

All right. Speaking of cold, let's talk to Dr. Daron here. Apparently there's a rise in respiratory

illnesses across the country. Yeah, so you know, we've been trying to evade these coughs,

these sneezes. It feels like an obstacle course when you're out there. So this is a

helpful update in terms of where we are in the viral forecast.

If you'll look at this map, you can see so far that at least 17 states reporting high or very high activity.

Now, this actually looks better than the last time I showed you this map.

You saw a lot of purple last time, but we have to be cautious because often there's holiday reporting,

and that can be a lag.

It's still, unfortunately, a high census in the emergency room.

The majority of cases I'm seeing are the flu, and that's representative of what we're seeing across the nation.

And for children, it's RSV.

And then for older adults, it's a combination of three.

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