{"id":331584,"date":"2025-12-05T07:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331584\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T07:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:15:15","slug":"flu-cases-rise-in-region-unvaccinated-health-care-workers-required-to-wear-masks-around-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331584\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu cases rise in region; Unvaccinated health care workers required to wear masks around patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2013 Flu cases are spiking around the Rochester region and the state. Because cases are rising, the New York State Department of Health says all health care workers who haven\u2019t gotten this year\u2019s flu shot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.ny.gov\/press\/releases\/2025\/2025-12-02_flu_prevalent.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">must wear masks<\/a> around patients.<\/p>\n<p>In Monroe County, 254 people had new confirmed flu cases and 13 people were hospitalized for the week ending on Saturday, Nov. 22. That\u2019s a 218% increase in confirmed cases from the week before. You can see the latest flu numbers by county on the state\u2019s Flu Tracker\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nyshc.health.ny.gov\/web\/nyapd\/new-york-state-flu-tracker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>University of Rochester Medical Center leaders say the emergency rooms at Strong and Highland hospitals are quite busy with flu cases. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe strain that we\u2019re seeing, that patients are getting admitted for, is influenza A, a type that is covered by the vaccine. Although the vaccine isn\u2019t perfect in preventing flu, it does help to prevent flu. But more importantly, it helps to prevent severe illness,\u201d said Dr. Michael Apostolakos, chief medical officer at Strong and Highland hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>Apostolakos says the best way to prevent the flu is to get your flu shot, wash your hands often, and stay home when you\u2019re sick. You can get your flu shot at local pharmacies, including Wegmans, Walgreens, and CVS.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whec.com\/tag\/rochester-region\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rochester region<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whec.com\/tag\/flu-cases\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flu cases<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whec.com\/tag\/masks\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">masks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2013 Flu cases are spiking around the Rochester region and the state. Because cases are rising,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-331584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}