Triangle hospitals continuing to see 'uptick' in respiratory illnesses

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's peak respiratory illness season in the Triangle, with hospitals seeing a "trifecta" of winter viruses - COVID-19, RSV, and the flu.

"All three are up compared to, say, three or four weeks ago," Dr. David Weber at UNC Health said. "More prominently, influenza and RSV than COVID."

Weber said not only are they seeing more cases, but more emergency room visits. This comes as they just recently helped Duke Health after flooding at Duke University Hospital last week forced Duke to redirect patients who were brought in by ambulance to UNC Health.

"It was much busier, particularly over the weekend," Weber said. "Duke has kept us advised about how their repair work is going and how many patients they can see."

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Weber said there was concern about trauma patients and people having heart attacks or strokes, so they called in extra teams and opened extra units.

"Our goal is always good patient care in the Triangle, and we're always willing to help each other," Weber said.

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Duke Health said it is back to accepting all EMS traffic, but UNC Health expects to remain busy, with more North Carolinians getting sick with respiratory illnesses.

"We're on our way up, but dramatically increasing," Weber said. "We usually don't peak until sort of late January, mid-February. So, I do expect we will continue to be increasing over the next several weeks."