ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Missouri health officials have upped their influenza classification status from sporadic to local.

451 new cases have been reported in the past week for a total of 2,088 confirmed so far in Missouri. That’s a nearly ten-fold increase over the past five year average for this time of flu season.

The hardest hit victims continue to be kids between the ages of 5 and 14. They make up 976 cases, about 3,000 percent higher than average.

In St. Louis County there have been 217 new cases, for a total of 701, with 43 percent of them in the 5 to 14 age range.