Flu cases are surging across New York state, putting added strain on hospitals as they deal with a busy flu season this winter.<\/p>\n
According to new data from the New York state Department of Health, 4,546 people have been hospitalized with the flu statewide. Just this week alone, hospitals reported the highest number of flu-related cases seen this season.<\/p>\n
Doctors at North Shore University Hospital say they are feeling the impact firsthand. Dr. Payal Sud, associate chair of emergency medicine, says the volume of patients is unusually high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis reminds me of when COVID first hit,\u201d Sud said. \u201cThe sheer volume and number of patients who are sick and require hospitalization and isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says many patients are arriving much sicker than in previous years, and a majority of those hospitalized have not received a flu vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of patients this year are not getting the vaccine,\u201d Sud said. \u201cThe vaccine doesn\u2019t prevent you from getting the flu, it prevents you from being extremely sick from the flu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catholic Health hospitals report that about 10% of their current patient census is flu-related. That is a sharp increase from just 1% at this time last year.<\/p>\n
Doctors say simple precautions can help slow the spread of the virus, especially as cases continue to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling sick, do the things we did during COVID times,\u201d Sud said. \u201cStay home, if you\u2019re in a crowded place, wear a mask, wash your hands. All those basic hygiene things are coming back now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Long Islanders say they are already taking extra precautions, particularly those who are most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 89 years old, and I\u2019m careful,\u201d said Joseph Bruzzo, of Rockville Centre. \u201cI try not to go out in crowds, and I stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n
State health officials say there have been more than 239,000 lab-confirmed flu cases so far this winter, along with more than 13,000 flu-related hospitalizations statewide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flu cases are surging across New York state, putting added strain on hospitals as they deal with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[32315,31753,8424,774,9,24,49,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-89681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-flu","tag-flu-season","tag-manhasset","tag-nassau-county","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}