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RALEIGH, NC (WNCN) – As respiratory infections rise, hospitals across the Triangle are restricting visitors. Restrictions are already in place at many hospitals, and will begin Wednesday at UNC Health Rex hospitals.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in flu from mid-December until now. That’s still going up,” explained Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke.
UNC Health is also seeing an increase in flu cases. Last week, UNC Hospitals reported 135 cases of the flu. UNC Hospitals also saw 173 cases of RSV last week, a number that has been on the rise.
Along with the flu, WakeMed reports rhinovirus, mycoplasma, and other viruses that cause fever, chills, and congestion in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
That’s why hospitals around the Triangle are banning hospital visitors. Duke Hospitals and UNC Health systems prohibit children under the age of 12 (and in some cases including 12-year-olds) from visiting most hospital areas.
Dr. David Weber, Associate Chief Medical Officer for UNC Hospitals and Medical Director in the Department of Infection Prevention, explained the reason for this.
“Very young people don’t know how to use a tissue,” he said. “Younger people also have higher viruses, and they are more infectious because they haven’t had as much information as older people have about their vaccinations.”
“If you get COVID or the flu in the hospital, it’s worse because you’re already very sick,” Weber added.
WakeMed currently does not restrict visitors to areas of the hospital that treat adults, but the hospital limits visitors to areas that treat children and infants. Visitors to those areas must be 12 years of age or older.
“During the respiratory period, we try to avoid visitors and limit it to patients who are really sick,” explained Dr. Damilola Joseph, Medical Director of WakeMed Children’s Emergency Department. “If you’re hospitalized, then you either have a very serious virus or your immune system is having a hard time fighting it, so the last thing we want to do is add another infection to that.”
He noted that restricting visitors can also protect healthy children from exposure.
All hospitals say they make exceptions to visitor limits in some cases.
Not only are respiratory viruses on the rise, but the CDC says the highly contagious norovirus is on the rise across the country, and as children return to school after holiday gatherings and travel, doctors are preparing for more illnesses as the winter wears on.
“I would say that the kind of rate of increase in the number of flu cases that we’ve seen is much, much more pronounced than 3-4 years ago,” Wolfe said. He noted that the prevalence of respiratory infections seems to be returning to a normal pattern after the epidemic. “This is back to business as usual, in a way, because we got the bad flu season at the beginning of January,” he said.
He does not expect the outbreak to end soon.
“I’d say, it’s going to be a busy couple of weeks to say the least,” he added.
List of UNC hospitals for various geographic restrictions
Restrictions in place for all UNC Hospitals (including the Chapel Hill and Hillsborough campuses) and UNC Faculty Physicians patient areas:
- Temporary, age-based visitor limits for all inpatients and waiting areas in all inpatient hospitals.
- In addition, all team members in the following hospitalization areas are required to wear masks while providing direct patient care:
– Emergency departments
– Adult and Pediatric ICUs
– Adult and Pediatric Abatement Units
–Adult and Pediatric Oncology Units
- Masks are highly recommended for patients and visitors to these units.
UNC Health Rex will implement the following changes starting Wednesday, Jan. 8, at both the major facilities in Raleigh and at Holly Springs Hospital:
- Restrict visitors 11 and under from inpatient areas, ED and all waiting rooms.
- Requires colleagues to wear masks during patient care activities in the ED, all ICUs and 5E (oncology).
- Recommend that colleagues wear masks in other areas.
- Masks are also highly recommended for patients and visitors.
UNC Health Johnston will implement new visitor restrictions on Monday, Jan. 6, 7 a.m. at both Clayton and Smithfield hospitals:
- Visitors 12 and under are not allowed in the boarding areas or waiting rooms.
- Anyone with respiratory symptoms (eg, coughing, sneezing, fever) is also not allowed in these areas.
- For Women’s Services, our RSV visitor policy will apply, which prohibits visitors under the age of 18.
About Age-Based Visitor Restrictions
- Valid for guests 11 and under.
- These visitors will be barred from all admissions and all waiting rooms.
- All visitors with respiratory symptoms are banned from these same areas.
- Healthy guests of any age are always welcome at our resort and retail/dining areas.
Duke Health lists restrictions
Daytime visitors to hospitals and surgical patients will be limited to no more than two people aged 12 and over. Overnight guests must be at least 18 years of age unless they are the parent or guardian of a minor patient.
Temporary measures include:
- Patients may receive more than two visitors at the same time. Additional visitor guidelines apply to some patients.
- Children under the age of 12 are not allowed to visit hospitals or wards without prior permission from health care providers and special circumstances.
- Visitors are urged to wear a mask when visiting patients and to wash their hands frequently. Masks and hand hygiene stations are available in all buildings and are effective against respiratory viruses.
- Visitors with a fever, cough or other flu-like symptoms should stay home.
WakeMed’s list of restrictions
Visits to WakeMed hospital facilities where infants and children receive care are restricted to persons 12 years of age and older. Exceptions to seasonal travel restrictions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
As always, anyone with symptoms of any serious, contagious disease should not visit WakeMed out of respect for our patients.
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