Hospitals have issued a high alert against the ‘super flu’.
Amid the spike in cases of flu and other respiratory illnesses, health officials have renewed Covid-like visitor restrictions
St. Joseph’s/Candler in Georgia has limited attendance due to the flu. Visitors without a flu shot or with symptoms must wear a mask and no one under the age of 18 will be admitted unless they are a patient’s primary caregiver.
Hospitals in the Dayton, Ohio area will implement temporary visitor restrictions on Friday, December 26, in response to high patient volumes due to respiratory illnesses. Visitors with complaints or under the age of 14 are prohibited.
Hospitals in Marion County, Indiana have implemented visitor restrictions due to rising numbers of flu and RSV cases. From the week of December 22, visitors with symptoms of illness, such as fever, cough or sore throat, are no longer allowed. Furthermore, no visitors under the age of 18 are allowed.
Mask mandates are also making a comeback. Major hospital systems in New Jersey, including Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJ Barnabas Health, have reinstated mask mandates for staff, patients and visitors in response to rising cases of Covid, influenza and RSV.
New York State has also mandated masks for unvaccinated health care workers in patient areas as flu cases and related hospitalizations have more than doubled statewide in recent weeks.
Flu hospitalizations have increased since early October, but began to peak in mid-November.
So far, the CDC estimates that at least 4.6 million flu illnesses have occurred this season. The agency estimates there have been 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from the flu.
The current flu crisis spreading across several states is caused by the H3N2 subtype of influenza A, which has mutated so many times that the immune system does not recognize it.
