hospitals more full\u2002<\/u><\/a>than at any other point in the pandemic \u2014 and worse than pre-pandemic years once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt the peak of the respiratory virus season, there could be between 15 and 25 new weekly hospitalizations for every 100,000 people in the US, according to the analysis. Covid-19 will probably account for half of those new hospitalizations, with flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) combined accounting for the other half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith the addition of a third virus (COVID-19) that can cause severe disease, even an average respiratory season can place significant strain on our healthcare system,\u201d the CDC wrote in a summary about the outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, respiratory virus levels are relatively low in the US overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first half of October, combined hospitalization rates for Covid-19, flu and RSV were less than half of what they were at the same time last year, CDC data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Covid-19 hospitalizations have been ticking down for about a month. There were about 16,000 new admissions in the second week of October, which will likely hold relatively steady over the next several weeks, CDC ensemble forecasts suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CDC also considers flu activity to be low currently, but some regions have seen slight increases. About 2% of outpatient health care visits were due to respiratory illness that included fever plus a cough or sore throat during the second week of October. That\u2019s still below baseline level \u2014 but it\u2019s already higher than it was at this point in any season since 2010, excluding last year, according to CDC data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it won\u2019t stay that way for long, and experts say that vaccinations will play a critical role in keeping people safe and healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are lots of reasons to think about whether there will be an even greater demand on the health care system than there was last year or the year before that,\u201d said Nancy Foster, vice president for Quality and Patient Safety Policy at the American Hospital Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur number one ask is that people get their vaccines, and now\u2019s the time. It\u2019s been shown in good studies to be the number one thing that keeps patients from either getting the disease \u2014 or if they do get it, from getting as sick as they might and needing to come into the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first year that the US has vaccines available to protect against all three major respiratory viruses. Everyone ages 6 months and older should get the updated Covid-19 vaccine and this season\u2019s flu vaccine, and the RSV vaccine is recommended for certain groups particularly at risk for severe disease, including infants and some older adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CDC says it\u2019s ideal to get the flu vaccine before the end of October \u2014 and flu, Covid-19 and RSV vaccines may be given at the same visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven with the end of the Covid-19 (public health emergency), our nation is in its strongest position yet to fight the three viruses responsible for the majority of fall and winter hospitalizations \u2014 flu, COVID-19, and RSV,\u201d a spokesperson from the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn addition, HHS has been in constant communication with public health departments, providers, stakeholders, and medical associations for months \u2014 through webinars, stakeholder engagement, news appearances, and more \u2014 on the importance of vaccination this fall and winter respiratory virus season, when cases are expected to rise, as they do annually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Friday, nearly 12 million people have gotten the new Covid-19 vaccine since they were authorized last month, according to HHS. That\u2019s millions more than the week prior, but still less than 4% of the US population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vaccination uptake is a key uncertainty in the CDC\u2019s forecasts for this respiratory virus season, Dylan George, director of the CDC\u2019s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, told CNN. That uncertainty remains, and the \u201coverall assessment is unchanged, namely that COVID-19 will still likely add significant hospitalization burden this season relative to pre-pandemic years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hospitals always plan and prepare for respiratory virus season, but it becomes more important as respiratory viruses compound amid a system that\u2019s strained for other reasons, too, said Dr. Kedar Mate, president and chief executive officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmergency rooms are already bursting at the seams. Add to that the respiratory season that\u2019s coming in the next couple of months, and we\u2019ve got a recipe here for a very challenging winter for our hospitals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why getting ahead of this right now with better primary prevention \u2014 by getting folks to consider the vaccine \u2014 will go a long way to both helping every person individually not have to come into the hospital, but will also help our health systems give the best possible care to the people that need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cnn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first signs of respiratory virus season are just starting to show in the United States, but experts stress the importance of getting vaccinated now to stay healthy through the winter and reduce strain on the health care system. Forecasts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that this respiratory disease season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[7293,23625,23626,6822,1809],"class_list":["post-19465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-challenge","tag-helpful","tag-respiratory-viruses","tag-season","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19467,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19465\/revisions\/19467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}