Flu season is fast approaching, as witnessed by the signs in pharmacies promoting flu shot sales.

Health officials recommend that nearly all Americans get flu vaccinations to blunt the impact of a disease that annually infects millions.

Roughly 145 million Americans get flu shots each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That count represents about 60 percent of children and 40 percent of adults.

The good news is that many people don’t have to pay anything. The Affordable Care Act required insurers to cover the cost of patients’ flu shots without charging copay, although some insurers only cover vaccines given by doctors or at certain locations.

Some pharmacies offer discounts and other enticements. For example, CVS offers customers at some of its pharmacies a $5 coupon redeemable at Target.

A government program also pays for shots for low-income children.

Safeway Pharmacy Fountain Hills is promoting free flu shots for individuals 55 years of age or older with most insurance plans, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Walgreen’s has scheduled three immunization dates in the Rio Verde community: 9 a.m. to noon, Oct. 9, Oct. 17 and Nov. 13.

The flu was everywhere last year. A Centers for Disease Control doctor cautioned that the last flu season proved to be one of the deadliest.

That’s why the CDC is urging people to act now, just before the October start of the 2018-19 flu season, and get vaccinated.

“The 2017-18 season was the first season to be classified as a high severity across all age groups,” the Center for Disease Control DC reported. The influenza-like illness activity ramped up in November, “reached an extended period of high activity during January and February nationally, and remained elevated through the end of March,” the CDC reported.

The CDC recommends everyone who is eligible and at least six months old get a flu shot.

According to the CDC, the flu costs the nation about $7 billion a year in sick days and lost productivity among working-age adults. That’s not to mention the heavy toll of hospitalizations and deaths that occur mainly among people 65 and older.

The CDC urges people to get their flu shots by the end of October.

Health officials want people to be vaccinated before flu season hits, and in some sections of the country, the time is as early as November and peaks sometime after December but before February is over.