Hospitals in Lafayette Area Enforce Visitor Restrictions Amid Spike in Illnesses

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Transcript

00:00Across Franciscan and IU hospitals in Lafayette, Crawfordsville and Rensselaer,

00:04these places are putting up restrictions for those who are visiting people in the

00:08hospital. Star City talked with Vice President of Medical Affairs at

00:11Franciscan Hospital in Lafayette, Dr. Daniel Wickert, on how it's handling the

00:16rising numbers in flu, COVID and RSV. We have collaborated together with both

00:20hospitals to say we believe that visitor guidelines should be placed in order to

00:24protect patients in the house and people who are coming in to visit patients in

00:29the hospital. While these patients may not have only been here for flu, COVID

00:33and RSV, they may have another condition and happen to also have tested positive.

00:37We've seen a significant increase over the past week to week and a half. Our

00:40census today at Franciscan in Lafayette is we have 15 individuals who are in the

00:45hospital who are positive for either COVID, flu or RSV. Dr. Wickert and the

00:51staff at Franciscan highly recommend if you have any symptoms such as cough,

00:55fever, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose and etc. to not come and visit your

01:00loved ones in the hospital. We don't want to spread your illness in here to

01:04patients who are in the hospital for other for other reasons or other

01:07conditions. If you are going to visit someone with respiratory problems, then

01:11you'll be asked to wear a mask while visiting that patient through the

01:14holidays. And we've just seen this increase. It's not unexpected. This is

01:19the time of year when we see these increases. So it's expected and we're

01:22just we're watching it on a regular daily basis. And the best way to help

01:26your local community and Franciscan is to wash your hands. And that's an

01:30important component of of diminishing the possibility of spreading these

01:37illnesses around. For more information, check out star city tv dot com.

01:41Madison deal. Star City News Lafayette.