Sunday 13 November 2022 06:23 AM California hospitals use tents to treat overflow of flu cases as positive tests ... trends now
Several Southern California hospitals have begun using overflow tents outside emergency rooms to cope with a rising number of patients with flu and other respiratory illness.
Tents were put up at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla and Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.
The move comes amid a rise in flu symptoms in emergency room patients in San Diego County. The dominant strain, H3N2, appears to lead to more severe illnesses than usual.
About nine percent of these patients had flu symptoms last week, up from 7 percent two weeks ago, according to a county report that also flagged an increase in patients with COVID-19 symptoms, though not as quickly.
Scripps hospitals and doctor's offices reported 1,695 positive flu tests since Sept. 1, up 259 percent from 471 in the same, year-ago period.
The Centers for Disease Control has said the flu and other viral illnesses have become 'notably high' in New York City, Washington DC and several states across the south - Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Several Southern California hospitals have begun using overflow tents outside emergency rooms to cope with a rising number of patients with flu and other respiratory illness
Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encitas. Scripps hospitals and doctor's offices reported 1,695 positive flu tests since Sept. 1, up from 471 during the same time period one year ago.
Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa has also put up tents to care for extra patients
UC San Diego Health in La Jolla is another hospital that has had to deal with an abundance of flu cases
Health experts said it was not immediately clear whether flu cases would reach an earlier-than-usual peak in California, which typically sees the bulk of cases in December through February, or a prolonged flu season.
Cases of influenza have also hit early in the Southern Hemisphere this year, which has experts wondering if it will continue through February or just burn out earlier, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
'The fear is that everything is just sort of bouncing off everything else and once you've been through the flu you could still get hit by COVID or whatever other virus you're going to get,' said Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, Scripps Health's chief medical officer of
