Chicago-area hospitals stocking more hand sanitizer and implementing stricter visitor policies for what is expected to be one of the worst flu seasons on record, according to an article on the Crains Chicago Business website.
From Jan. 7-13, Loyola University Medical Center set a new flu activity record with 190 lab-confirmed cases recorded in a single week, compared with 100 confirmed cases in the busiest week in February 2017.
Loyola has raised the visitor age requirement to 18 during flu season. Children tend to shelter more virus and contaminate the environment much more, so they pose significantly great risk to transmission.
Loyola also just purchased more sanitizers and hand soap to allow hospital visitors to wash their hands more frequently.