Flu season is in full force this year and First State hospitals are taking extra measures to handle a higher volume of patients.
At Beebe Medical Center’s Lewes campus, staff are requiring visitors with cold or flu-like symptoms to wear masks.
Bayhealth Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gary Siegelman their hospitals are making more beds available and increasing staffing.
“If this goes on for a period of several weeks, and it could, we’ll have at least another 20 to 25 beds available for patients,” said Siegelman.
Dr. Marci Drees, an Epidemiologist for Christiana Health Care System, says the hospital has set up a conference room to accommodate any overflow from the emergency room .
“Our emergency department is very busy. We have had capacity codes in both hospitals for many days in a row. So, it’s not all flu, but the flu is definitely contributing to a very busy hospital and a very busy emergency department,” said Drees.
Drees adds this year’s flu season, which started about a month earlier than usual, is shaping up to be one of the worst in a decade.
“The strain that’s circulating primarily right now is the H3N2 strain which hasn’t really been circulating for the last decade so people don’t have a lot of underlying immunity to it and it tends to cause more severe flu than other stains and so we’re certainly seeing that,” said Drees.
Delaware is one of 47 states reporting “widespread” flu infections. The most recent information available from the state’s Division of Public Health counts 441 cases of the flu since the season began in October.
Public health officials are urging all persons six months and older to be vaccinated for the flu.
