LEWISTON — The flu is in Maine.

The illness signaled with fever and aches is in every county in Maine and most of its hospitals, and it seems to be spreading, experts say.

“We’re gearing up, predicting that it might be a worse season than usual,” said Jenae Limoges, an infectious diseases doctor at Central Maine Medical Center. “But we don’t really know that yet.”

So she’s getting ready. At her hospital in Lewiston, anyone who arrives in the emergency department showing flu-like symptoms is typically isolated immediately after arrival. Any staff member who comes into contact with the individual must wear a mask to help slow the disease’s spread.

“It could be like last year when it all hits at once and then it goes away,” Limoges said.

It’s not leaving yet.

On Monday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention raised the status of the flu to “widespread’ after confirmed cases were found in all 16 Maine counties.

In Farmington, the season began with a case on Oct. 7 at Franklin Memorial Hospital. The hospital has since seen another 28 confirmed cases, spokeswoman Jill Gray said.

At St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, the Emergency Room has seen 17 cases. More were likely seen among the hospital’s primary care physicians and at its clinic at Walmart in Auburn, spokeswoman Jennifer Radel said.

At least six cases have been diagnosed at Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick, Limoges said. However, numbers of flu cases were unavailable at Central Maine Medical Center, she said.

In part, it’s due to a busy time at the Lewiston hospital.

On Monday night, the emergency department was so busy with cases — with people with flu-like symptoms, gastrointestinal problems and breathing difficulties sparked by the cold weather and other issues — that the hospital stopped accepting ambulances for about two hours and diverted them to St. Mary’s.

Cases are infecting hospital workers, too. More than one at St. Mary’s was diagnosed with the flu, Radel said. And at CMMC, spokesman Randall Dustin said at least one hospital worker was sidelined by flu-like symptoms.

The number of flu cases will be tallied soon. Along with the state’s change in flu status, Dr. Sheila Pinette, director of the Maine CDC, said Tuesday her office was going to begin conversations this week with health care providers across the state to monitor the flu’s spread.

“We do know that in southern states, there has been a large number of hospitalizations,” Pinette sad. “Across all of the New England states, it hasn’t gotten that severe.”

On Monday, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 43 states were experiencing either high or widespread cases of the flu. Adult numbers were unavailable, but nationally, the CDC estimated that 21 children had died this year due to the illness.

No one has died from the flu in Maine this season, Pinette said.

She and Limoges recommended that people undergo good practices, including frequent hand-washing and covering sneezes with an arm.

And though the surging strain of the flu appears to be H3N2, a slightly different strain from the one targeted by the flu vaccine, they encourage people to take the vaccine.

“Vaccination is still a cornerstone of therapy,” Pinette said. “Even though it may not be specific to that viral strain, you will probably get some benefit and protection and may not be as ill.”

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