Before Thanksgiving health officials were warning about increases in flu and other respiratory illnesses and now 12 days later those flu and covid symptoms are showing up. Even though more folks are coming to hospitals, the health care system says it’s not overwhelmed; but after Christmas it could be, due to a few reasons including another potential spike as well as hospital staffs being spread thin.
Hospitals across the country are feeling the strain of flu like illnesses and covid.
"We've seen many more cases. We have more people hospitalized confirmed influenza than covid 19," says Dr. Wes Stubblefield.
Dr. Don Williamson, the President of the Alabama Hospital Association says as of Friday, there are about 250 people with influenza in the hospital and about 250 in the hospital with covid.
"Of those two, we've actually had higher numbers. We've had up to 300 people in the hospital with influenza since thanksgiving and the one that's tracking in the more concerning direction is the covid numbers," says Williamson.
He says at one point the covid numbers were under 200 cases a day, but now he says they're over 300 cases a day.
"That does not suggest that we're going to see what we've seen with prior spikes. The omicron variant doesn't cause severe disease, more people have been vaccinated," says Williamson.
Williamson says the H3N2 strain of the flu, or “flu a”, that's currently circulating causes more severe disease, which can lead to hospitalizations and deaths.
"Our hospitals are busy. They are very busy," says Williamson.
Busy with patients with covid or influenza, but Williamson says they're not overwhelmed in the same way that they were at the height of the pandemic.
"There's also one thing to be aware of and that is that the elasticity of the system is less," says Williamson.
He says hospital staffing remains a serious challenge and as a result- hospitals have less flexibility to take care of growing numbers of patients. With Christmas only 20 days away- health officials are being cautious of another spike.
"You put groups of people together, in indoor spaces, and the virus is fairly widely circulating you're going to see transmission and so I will not at all be surprised to see those numbers rise after Christmas," says Williamson.
Williamson says remember to stay away from others if you're sick as the holidays approach and people are spending more time with each other.