Flu is still straining Twin Cities hospitals
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It wasn't just your imagination: A lot of people really were sick over the holidays, and we finally have numbers to prove it.
The big picture: Twin Cities hospitals have been packed as influenza spikes and COVID-19 and RSV cases rise.
State of phlegm: From Dec. 29 to Jan. 4, metro hospitals admitted more people with influenza than any week in at least the previous five years, according to the latest Minnesota Department of Health data.
- Between COVID-19 and RSV cases, hospitals haven't been this packed with respiratory patients since Dec. 2022.
- After a quiet fall, Minnesota shot into the "high" category on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's influenza activity index.
Plus: The state also saw a historic number of norovirus outbreaks in December, further straining clinics.
What they're saying: Hospitals are still packed as January wears on, the Star Tribune reported.
- "We're seeing patients in hallways, in triage bays, in every kind of nook and cranny of our hospital that we can find," Brandon Trigger, medical director for Southdale Hospital's emergency department, told the newspaper.
The bottom line: Wash your hands and cover your coughs, people!