More than 9,850 patients visited New York City emergency departments with influenza-like symptoms during the week ending Dec. 20 — the most of any week in the past decade, The New York Times reported Dec. 26.
Manhasset, N.Y.-based Long Island Jewish Medical Center is among the hospitals reporting a surge in patient visits. The number of patients visiting the emergency room has increased from 250 to about 280 or 290 a day, Frederick Davis, DO, an emergency medicine phyisian at the hospital, told the Times.
During the second week of December, 24,607 laboratory-reported flu cases were recorded in New York City, more than any week during last year’s severe flu season. Almost 15,000 of the cases were reported in children.
Last year’s flu season saw the highest influenza-associated hospitalization rate since the 2010-11 season.
The dominant strain of flu circulating is H3N2 and does not appear to be more virulent than other strains, though it does have acquired mutations that may help it evade immune system attacks.
Despite the increase in emergency room visits, most patients who end up being admitted have underlying health conditions, Dr. Davis told the Times.
Other areas, including Boston and North Texas, are experiencing similar surges of reported flu cases:
- Boston has seen a 114% increase in flu cases and 44% increase in flu-related emergency department visits, according to a Dec. 23 news release from the city of Boston and Boston Public Health Commission.
There has been an 83% increase in cases among children younger than 5 and a 217% increase in cases among children ages 5-17.
During the last flu season, Boston did not reach this case level until January. - Dallas-based Children’s Health saw a 175% increase of flu cases systemwide for the week of Dec. 14, according to a Dec. 24 report from NBC affiliate WFAA.
- Nationwide respiratory virus activity remained low as of Dec. 19, according to CDC data. The agency will resume updating virus activity data Dec. 30.
- Flu and COVID-19 activity is expected to increase during the holiday season.
“We haven’t hit the peak yet,” Caitlin Rivers, PhD, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Times.
