With cases of respiratory illnesses reaching a high level this winter, lines at emergency rooms are longer and medical facilities are taking precautions.
Respiratory illnesses like COVID-19, RSV and the flu are on the rise across the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Massachusetts is no exception.
About 16.7% of emergency room visits in the Bay State are currently due to respiratory virus infections, according to Dr. Larry Madoff, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Medical Director of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences.
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"Hospitals are packed to the gills," Madoff said. "Emergency room wait times are high and there's a lot of congestion there."
Meanwhile, wastewater data from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority shows COVID levels are on the rise.
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"The wastewater data are really our key indicator of how much COVID is out there," Tufts Medical Center's Dr. Shira Doron said. "And what we see now is quite high level of COVID wastewater."
State data shows about 18% of the population is up to date on their COVID vaccines, compared with 37% who got the flu shot this season.
"We're disappointed in the numbers," Madoff said. "More than more than 18% of people clearly should be vaccinated."
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Doron said high-risk individuals should get the latest booster for the COVID vaccine, consider avoiding crowds and wearing masks.
"I really don't want people to have the impression that we're having any kind of an unprecedented winter in terms of respiratory viruses," Doron said. "What we are seeing now is a normal respiratory virus season."
Overall, everyone should be focusing on nutrition, proper hygiene and exercise.
"During respiratory virus season, everyone's got to sort of take stock of their own risk and their own risk tolerance and know that there is more risk out there," Doron said.
