Respiratory illness ramp up for winter

Jan. 5—TRIAD — The current patient demand on urgent care centers in the region illustrates the triple threat of respiratory viruses heading into this winter, an infectious disease expert at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist said.

Last week, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist had a record number of patient visits to its urgent care network amid cases of the flu, COVID-19 and RSV, Dr. Christopher Ohl said during a briefing Friday.

While RSV infections have begun to wane, flu and COVID-19 cases are continuing to rise.

Flu is particularly potent right now and may not peak for four to five weeks, Ohl said. The respiratory illness season should carry into mid- to late February.

To counter the viral threat from the flu and COVID-19, Ohl said, "it's still not too late to get vaccinated." Studies continue to show that people who get inoculated have fewer complications if they get infected.

The greater High Point area and Piedmont Triad reflect the increase in respiratory infections across the nation. During the week ending Dec. 23, more than 29,000 patients were admitted to medical centers nationwide with COVID-19, about 15,000 with the flu and thousands more with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

The CDC calculates that there have been more than 7 million illnesses, 73,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths related to the flu so far in the United States. COVID-19 emergency department visits nationally have risen 12% in recent weeks and the number of hospitalized patients have increased about 17%.

In North Carolina for the week ending Dec. 30, there was a daily average of 866 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to 692 patients the previous week, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. But that remains noticeably below the 1,620 COVID-19 hospitalizations across North Carolina for the first week of last year.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul