We're not out of the woods yet as far as the flu is concerned.
The calendar may say Spring, but influenza is still an issue at Windsor Regional Hospital, according to President and CEO David Musyj.
Musyj says while the urgency has subsided a bit, the hospital's resources are still challenged.
"It is still very busy," says Musyj. "We are seeing it busy in our medicine program. We're not through it yet. We've probably got a solid two more weeks. It's definitely declining, but it's still with us."
Windsor-Essex is seeing its most active Influenza season in two decades, though the latest flu report from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says the number of lab-confirmed flu cases is dropping. The number of individual outbreaks appears to have plateaued as well.
Musyj says the hospital is still seeing instances of 100% capacity, though those peaks are not as frequent.
"It goes above 100 on certain days still, but it's still in that range. It's not where we want to be in the sense of, come April, the goal would be at 85 to 90, where we were in October," says Musyj.
Despite the busy flu season, Musyj credits the hospital staff for planning so they would be ready to handle it. The recent addition of a patient flow command centre has increased communication among departments at all of WRH's campuses, and Musyj says monitoring the flu in other parts of the world also helps them prepare.
"Because we did a lot of preparation, knowing that this year was going to be a bad year because of what happened in Australia, we've been able to make positive changes that have resulted in us being able to cope with the larger volumes," says Musyj.
Patients can still do their part to help control the flu by frequently washing hands to control the spread of the virus. Those with flu-like symptoms should stay home and rest, and visit their family doctor or urgent care clinic, with the emergency room the last resort.