METAIRIE, La. (WGNO) – If you’re not sick, chances are you know someone who is!
Doctors say the holidays took a toll on immune systems.
“About end of November until now, we are seeing a rise in our sick patients,” Dr. Lauren Hernandez, a pediatrician and the co-owner of Sprout Pediatrics, said.
Dr. Hernandez says she and her staff are seeing about 75 patients daily, treating kids for various respiratory illnesses.
Although, compared to last year, the staff is seeing fewer cases of COVID-19, Hernandez says they have been consistently busy, tending to kids with the common cold.
“Last year, you thought okay, ‘Well, this is a one-time thing, it’s COVID, that’s going to go away, or that’s going to decrease,’ but this year, we were just as busy, if not busier, but it wasn’t COVID, it was flu, and then it was the common cold that snuck through,” Hernandez said.
Adults aren’t catching a break either.
Dr. Roland Waguespack III, the medical director of the emergency department at East Jefferson General Hospital, says his emergency room is seeing more patients compared to last year.
“It’s a real hodgepodge of patients,” Dr. Waguespack explained. “In one room, we’ll have COVID, the next room, we’ll have influenza, the next, we’ll have some other respiratory virus.”
Waguespack predicts his staff will start to see fewer people in the emergency room come spring, once cold and flu season is over.
However, if you are seeking medical attention, doctors are asking for your patience.
“We really want to see every patient as quickly as we can,” Waguespack said. “We also have a duty to see patients, really, in order of their acuity. So, in other words, we really need to prioritize a person who’s having an active stroke, active heart attack.”