Suddenly, there have been seen an increase in covid-19 patients at U.S. hospitals arriving even as health systems contend with waves of feverish, coughing people stricken with RSV and influenza infections.
Increasing number of patients
Covid-19 hospitalizations last week reached their highest level in three months, with more than 35,000 patients being treated, according to Washington Post data tracking. National hospitalizations had stagnated throughout fall but started rising in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. All but a few states reported per capita increases in the past week.
Public health authorities are concerned that the increase in the number of covid patients will worsen the strain on hospitals already under pressure from the effects of two other viral ailments, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, widely known as RSV.”
Experts Observation
“It could be in a week or two we are seeing many more covid patients than we are seeing RSV or flu, but the real concern is we will see a large influx of all of them really stressing out the hospitals’ capacity to care for these very sick patients,” said Foster, the association’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy.
“If we are going to see a big surge, it’s going to start to ramp up now, and it’s going to extend and probably peak in late December and early January,” said Columbia University epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman. “The hope will be it will be somewhat mild, of course, and enough boosting and prior exposure is going to keep a large chunk of people out of the hospital.”
“What is happening this winter already and what we can continue to expect is influenza and RSV are not going to be at unprecedented low levels,” said Banner Chief Clinical Officer Marjorie Bessel. “We are going to have a high-volume winter like we have had previously in the pandemic. How much of a high volume due to all this coming together is an unknown.”