ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Three Beaumont hospitals in Metro Detroit are restricting visitors for pediatric units as of Wednesday due to a rise in respiratory illnesses in the hospital and throughout the community, officials announced.
Starting Wednesday, Dec. 13, the following Corewell Health hospitals will be restricting the number of people allowed to visit a pediatric patient:
- Beaumont Hospital, Dearborn
- Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak
- Beaumont Hospital, Troy
Only two people will be allowed to visit “at the bedside during the day,” and only one person will be allowed to visit overnight, Corewell Health officials said. The restrictions are only in place for pediatric and emergency patients who are 21 years old or younger.
Standard visitor protocols remain in place for the remaining patients.
According to a press release released Wednesday, the visitor restrictions come amid a time when a “high number” of children are being admitted to the hospitals with respiratory viruses. The respiratory illnesses are said to be spreading throughout the community at large, as well.
Beaumont hospitals had invoked visitor restrictions in the past, particularly during the height of the COVID pandemic. Illnesses often spread faster and further during the colder months, with more and more people spending time indoors, especially during the holiday season.
Corewell Health is encouraging people to get their COVID and flu vaccines, and to stay home if they’re sick. U.S. health officials said earlier this month that RSV lung infections, which most seriously affect children and older adults, were believed to be peaking for the season.
Flu was on the rise in many states, however, and COVID was still causing the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses.
---> Flu is on the rise while RSV infections may be peaking, US health officials say
Beaumont Health merged with Spectrum Health in 2021 to form Corewell Health, now the largest health care system in Michigan. Officials said in October 2022 that new branding and signage would be released over the next two years at the health system’s medical centers.