United States: Some hospitals in Illinois which are like Rush University Medical Center, are hereby requiring people to wear masks due to an increase in COVID-19, the flu, and other illnesses. The mask rule applies to visitors and staff in certain areas.
‘‘It is regrettable that as of December 2, 2024, Rush has made it compulsory for patients and visitors to wear hospital-approved masks when in clinical offices, waiting areas and patient registration,’’ the hospital noted. It starts during the season when flu, RSV and COVID-19 transmission is most likely to increase.
The above requirement currently applies in all the health system’s hospitals which include Rush University Medical Center, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital.
As reported by the 5 Chicago, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria will start enforcing face masks from Tuesday owing to what the hospital said was highly elevated cases of respiratory diseases; there is COVID-19, flu, and RSV. Moreover, it said that the visiting hours will be restricted starting with only two visitors per patient who are 18 years old and above.
Endeavor Health, another area health system, prohibits visitors with fevers or respiratory symptoms from entering its facilities and requires all visitors to wear masks due to the continued spread of the virus, its website states. Staff members are required to wear masks in University of Chicago Medicine, a spokesman said, for “all patient care and patient facing activities.”
At a state level, the Office of the Illinois Department of Public Health announced on 23 rd December that the overall respiratory illness level had risen from low to moderate. ER visits for respiratory illness grew from 13.8% to 14.7% in a week, and more ICU admissions for RSV, officials said this was mainly due to children aged between 0 and 4 years.
The increase in Illinois has been in response to spikes in flu and whooping cough rates across much of the nation.
When I asked Dr. Whitney Lyn, a family medicine physician at Cook County Health, about when the hospital admission rate starts to surge, she replied that it used to start a week after the holidays, but this time the hospitals are already overcrowded.