Officials at St. Rita's say they've seen a spike in influenza cases over the weekend, so much so they're starting to turn some visitors away.
"I think it is a little alarming that we have seen such an increase in the influenza activity in the area," Deb Nocera, St. Rita's Infection Control Dept. Interim Manager, said.
As of Tuesday morning there were 125 reported influenza cases at St. Rita's just over the weekend. By noon on Tuesday, the number of cases had gone up to 138 - with 18 of those people being admitted.
"Last year we did have a peak season, it was not as high as we're seeing currently," Nocera said.
Nocera says this is one of the highest number of flu cases she's seen at the hospital within such a short period of time. Alarming enough the hospital has declared a restriction on visitors. In a statement from the St. Rita's it says: "The restriction includes anyone with symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever or diarrhea. It also restricts anyone under the age of 14 from visitation."
"The reason that we're this is to try to keep anyone that comes here, especially our patients and our staff, to keep them from maybe becoming ill," Nocera said.
When it comes to people being admitted to the hospital with the flu, the Allen County Health Department says February's numbers are already on par with all of last month.
"For the month of January, for the first week of February we've had 26, so that shows you the rates are increasing. The flu is definitely here," said Deb Roberts with Allen County Public Health.
Officials at Lima Memorial say they don't have any visitor restrictions at this time, but they are urging visitors and workers to take precaution. As far as the visitation restrictions at St. Rita's, Nocera says they will be taking it a day at a time.
