Salem Township Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jim Timpe says the start of school has brought a big increase in respiratory illnesses, including an uptick in COVID-19.
He updated the hospital board at this week’s meeting.
“Every year when school starts, it’s not just school students who get the jump in respiratory illnesses, it’s their parents, grandparents, teachers and teachers’ families,” Timpe said. “You always see this big jump at the end of August. It goes through the end of September and then it dies down a little bit. The first six weeks of school are rough because everybody’s infecting each other.”
So far during August, the hospital has recorded five positive COVID cases. Timpe says COVID tests through the hospital lab have resumed.
“(Patients) have so many symptoms, so they need to make sure that they’re giving people the right medication. In order to give someone Paxlovid, which is the medication for COVID that really reduces your symptoms and gets you recovered faster, you have to have a positive test.”
Salem Township Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Lisa Ambuehl says so far, the flu and RSV have not been recorded in the uptick in respiratory illnesses. She says most of the cases they are seeing are the common cold.
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