Coronavirus Watch: It's more important than ever to get your flu shot

It's more important than usual to get your flu shot this year because of the pandemic, experts say. 

Why? Getting it your flu shot could help lessen the burden on hospitals as health workers continue to fight COVID-19. While it's not completely clear how the flu season will interact with COVID-19, the CDC recommends people get a flu vaccine by the end of October.

It's Monday and this is the Coronavirus Watch newsletter from the Paste BN Network. Here's the news to know today, as of 2:30 p.m. ET. 

• Back on campus: An Oklahoma State sorority is in quarantine after 23 members tested positive for COVID-19, while the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced its fourth coronavirus "cluster" less than a week after the first day of classes.
• Numbers check: The U.S. surpassed 170,000 deaths from COVID-19, while more than 5.4 million Americans have tested positive, per Johns Hopkins data. Worldwide, 21.7 million have tested positive and 775,000 have died.
• How effective is your mask? Duke University researchers ran a study examining the effectiveness of 14 different types of masks based on how many droplets were transmitted while talking. Here are the results.

Keep track of the latest data right here, including daily case counts across the country and in your state.

Can’t find Lysol disinfectant spray? Here’s what to buy instead.

– Jay Cannon, Paste BN Network and Wires Editor, @JayTCannon on Twitter.