Hospitals on high alert as patients of 'super flu' increase during holiday season

Hospitals have issued high alert against “super flu.”

Amid the spike in flu and other respiratory disease cases, the health officials have renewed Covid-like visitor restrictions

St. Joseph’s/Candler in Georgia has restricted visitors due to flu. Visitors without a flu shot or with symptoms must wear a mask, and no one under 18 is allowed unless they are a patient's primary caretaker.

Hospitals in the Dayton, Ohio region will begin temporary visitor restrictions on Friday, December 26 in response to high patient volumes from respiratory illnesses. Visitors with any symptoms or those who are under 14 years old are prohibited.

Hospitals in Marion County, Indiana have applied visitor restriction due to rising flu and RSV cases. Starting the week of December 22, visitors with any illness symptoms, such as fever, cough or sore throat, will not be permitted. Additionally, no visitors under the age of 18 will be 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, flu and RSV.

New York State has also mandated masks for unvaccinated healthcare workers in patient areas, as statewide flu cases and related hospitalizations have more than doubled in recent weeks.

Flu hospitalizations have been climbing since early October but began to spike in mid-November.

So far this season, the CDC estimates that at least 4.6 million flu illnesses have occurred. The agency estimates that there have been 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from the flu.

The current flu crisis sweeping 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.