Cold and flu season in St. Louis seems normal, officials say

ST. LOUIS — Respiratory viruses are spreading and sickening more people across Missouri and the country. But after years of dealing with a new virus and the unknowns of a pandemic, area hospital officials say that this cold and flu season actually feels normal.

“It’s winter, and this is kind of weird to say, but it’s like we’re sort of getting back into a more typical rhythm,” said Dr. Alex Garza, chief community health officer for SSM Health, speaking on behalf of St. Louis-area health systems.

Winter is prime time for the spread of cold and flu. People are more likely to be indoors and closer to others, especially for holiday celebrations. The viruses survive better in cooler temperatures with lower humidity.

Recent winters saw overwhelming numbers of extremely sick COVID-19 patients fill hospital beds, causing fear over the capacity to handle a severe flu season. More children were unexpectedly sickened after their first exposure to viruses like RSV when prevention measures like mask-wearing and social distancing waned.

While emergency departments and urgent cares are busy, Garza says the wait times are typical.

“Breaking news,” he said. “We’re boring again.”

Though COVID-19 has been added to the mix of respiratory viruses, Garza said COVID-19 patients are not as sick as they have been in the past because of vaccination and exposure to the virus.

“It’s acting more like a typical respiratory virus, where it come up in the winter time and can cause some upper respiratory infections and cough and things like that,” he said, “but it’s not impacting the health care systems as dramatically as it was previously.”

The number of people admitted to hospitals in Missouri with COVID-19 has been climbing since the beginning of October, but especially since the Thanksgiving holiday — going from 518 a week a month ago to 752 during the week ending Dec. 23, the latest data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s the highest number seen since last winter, which saw a peak of 942 during the week ending Dec. 31, but still a far cry from the highest of 2,982 admitted during a week in January 2022, when the omicron variant took over.

Missouri is currently one of 18 states mostly surrounding the upper Midwest seeing “medium” rates of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, while the rest of the country is “low,” according to the CDC.

When it comes to influenza, or flu, Missouri is currently seeing “moderate activity,” while much of the country is at high levels. Statewide data shows 210 patients with confirmed influenza were admitted during the week ending Dec. 23, up from 58 a month ago.

Though flu cases can surge again as late as March, this flu season so far appears to be milder than recent flu seasons — except for the first winter of the pandemic in 2020-21, which saw hardly any flu cases because of COVID-19 prevention measures.

Though specific statewide data is not available, hospitals are also seeing more patients with other respiratory viruses, such as RSV, rhinovirus and enterovirus, Garza said.

Hard to find at the start of cold season were a new immunization against RSV for infants and a new vaccine approved for pregnant women which can protect their babies against RSV. But those are now more readily available and can have an impact, Garza said. The vaccine was also approved for adults over the age of 60.

Each year, RSV lands between 60,000 to 160,000 adults over the age of 65 in the hospital, and kills between 6,000 to 10,000 in that age group, the CDC estimates. Among children younger than 5, RSV causes 58,000 to 80,000 hospitalizations and 100 to 300 deaths.

Garza because of education efforts during the pandemic, he sees more people wearing masks in public and staying home of they are sick — efforts that can keep all viruses at bay.

“Because of COVID, people are being a little more cognizant of stuff like that,” he said. “It does seem that people are more aware of how respiratory pathogens work and are taking the precautions.”