(Web Desk) - Hospitals across two of America’s biggest cities will once again require staff, patients and other guests to wear face masks in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the flu and RSV.
All 11 public hospitals and city-run nursing homes will bring back mandatory face coverings in New York City, according to a WABC report.
In Chicago, WGN reports that facilities associated with the Rush University medical system will also begin to require masks for patients.
“The cases of COVID, the cases of flu are on the rise,” Ashwin Vasan, M.D., New York City’s health commissioner, told Spectrum NY1 on Wednesday.
“Cases of RSV have actually hit their peak and we think are on the way down, which is good news for adults and kids, but what I want to say to New Yorkers is that it’s not inevitable that we’re all just going to get sick.”
Most recent data published by the city’s health department shows that 8,400 New Yorkers had the flu during the week that ended on December 16.
This represents a 61% week-over-week increase, and far outpaces figures from the same week in 2019, 2020 and 2021. However, it falls well short of the nearly 18,000 positive cases recorded the same week last year.
Official flu figures are often significant undercounts because a majority of people who fall ill do not get tested.
In its most recent COVID data, New York City reported 1,402 new cases and 50 hospitalizations.
In Chicago, hospitalizations linked to COVID jumped 13% during the week that ended on December 24, with 27 people hospitalized while infected.
Confirmed case figures are dropping, however, down 11% to 236 during the week leading up to Christmas.
Chicago also reports 26 ICU admissions linked to the flu during the week that ended December 23, a jump from 20 the previous week.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an increase in COVID deaths and hospitalizations during the week leading up to Christmas.