Hospital emergency rooms across Long Island are filling up as more people are falling ill with flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
New York is following a national trend showing an increase in the number of people seeking medical care for respiratory illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is one of 39 states where respiratory virus activity has been declared high or very high.
“We do have a lot of patients in the emergency room with respiratory symptoms, there’s no doubt about it,” said Dr. Jonathan M. Buscaglia, chief medical officer at Stony Brook University Hospital.
He said the increase, which started after Christmas, is normal for this time of year.
About 15% to 20% of patients admitted to the hospital have some kind of respiratory illness. Buscaglia said most of those patients have chronic medical conditions that were compounded by COVID-19, flu, RSV or another virus.
“A patient may not have the classic symptoms of influenza with the high fevers and muscle aches, but instead see an exacerbation of their blood sugars if they’re diabetic, or they may experience some issues with fluid overload and difficulty breathing if they have bad congestive heart failure,” he said.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald and New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan issued a joint statement late Monday noting an increase in hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 and flu and seeing a significant number of infections from RSV. They urged health care workers and New Yorkers who are not feeling well or are more vulnerable to falling ill to consider wearing masks in crowded indoor settings. Many health systems on Long Island are either requiring or recommending staff and visitors wear masks when entering hospitals and other facilities.
There were 618 patients on Long Island hospitalized for COVID-19 on Jan. 8, compared with 278 on Dec. 6. But this uptick is still down from the same time period in…
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