Seasonal viruses are on the rise in the United States and some hospitals are enacting mask requirements in hopes of preventing the spread of illnesses.
According to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29,000 people were admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 in the week ending Dec. 23. At the same time, about 15,000 were hospitalized for the flu as thousands more were admitted for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Weekly emergency department visits rose by 12%, and hospitalizations jumped by about 17% in the week. A new report is due out Friday this week.
On Dec. 29, the CDC reported that the amount of respiratory illness (fever plus cough or sore throat) driving a lot of people to get medical attention was increasing in most areas of the country. COVID-19 levels in wastewater were higher than this time last year in every region of the country and the highest levels were in the Midwest, the CDC reported. Experts use that measurement to gauge viral transmission.
This season, the CDC estimates that there have been more than 7 million flu cases, 73,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths related to the flu, and multiple indicators are on the rise and climbing. Outpatient visits for flu-like illness jumped to 6.1%, up from 5.1% the previous week. The level has been above the national baseline for weight weeks consecutively; all 10 regions are above their regional baselines.
In some parts of the United States, RSV activity is beginning to slow down though hospitalization rates are still higher. Older adults are most affected by RSV, along with young children.
“It’s a wave of winter respiratory pathogens, especially respiratory viruses. So it’s COVID, it’s flu, and we can’t diminish the importance of RSV,” Peter Hotez, MD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN. “So it’s a triple threat, and arguably a fourth threat because we also have pneumococcal pneumonia, which complicates a lot of these virus infections.”
Hotez noted that the numbers in the CDC report were those before the end of the year when many people got together for the holidays. As a result, the amount of people with viruses could go up.
