Worcester health officials urge masking, vaccination to reduce spread of COVID, other viruses

WORCESTER — Worcester health officials are advising the public to use masks and become vaccinated to avoid a surge in COVID cases and the spread of other viruses.

RSV is contributing to a current spike in hospital visits, particularly for children, and is correlated with school absences, officials said. It’s a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold like symptoms.

“The number of cases that we’re seeing is maybe 50 to 70 percent higher than a typical year,” said Timothy Gibson, MD, a pediatrician at UMass Memorial Medical Center. “And it’s still early in the season.”

RSV infections normally start climbing in late October and dissipate by April, much like influenza. But pandemic precautions threw this normal pattern off -- such that an unusual summer outbreak of RSV happened in 2021.

The early, massive surge in RSV infections this fall may be due to a lack of immunity among young children never exposed to the virus.

“It certainly has to do with Covid and the masking and social distancing we did during the height of Covid,” Gibson said.

“More kids are getting sick because they’ve never seen this virus before,” said Michael Hirsh, MD, Medical Director for Worcester’s Division of Public Health.

While most people recover from RSV in one to two weeks, infants, young children, older adults, and those with chronic health conditions and weakened immune systems are susceptible to serious illness.

“In younger patients, it can cause bronchiolitis, which is an infection in the lower part of the lungs,” said Gibson. “Babies, especially, really struggle to breathe with that.”

And it appears many children in Massachusetts are struggling with RSV. The Department of Public Health reports that, as of Monday, just 16 pediatric ICU beds are available in the entire state.

“The availability of pediatric ICU beds in Massachusetts is at DefCon 5,” said Hirsh. “The ICU here at UMass is shipping patients as far away as Maine to try to get ICU care.”

Further compounding the overcrowding situation, Hirsh said, are staff shortages brought on by pandemic resignations. In some cases, hospitals can’t staff available ICU beds -- so they remain empty. While at the same time, other beds remain occupied -- even when they shouldn’t be.

“Home care nursing is not available,” Hirsh said. “Visiting nursing is not available. So we have a lot of patients dwelling in the hospital because they’re not ready to be sent home unless we have those options.”

Although masking and social distancing may have indirectly triggered this fall’s explosion in RSV cases, masking can also help slow transmission down, Hirsh said. Worcester is recommending masks for children two-years and older -- as well as for caregivers of those particularly vulnerable to serious effects from RSV, such as infants. The city is also asking all residents to consider mask-wearing when indoors or in crowded outdoor spaces.

“We’re just trying to be proactive,” Hirsh said. “When we had masks on over the two-and-a-half years of the pandemic we didn’t see RSV to this degree, we didn’t see flu to this degree. The masks helped us.”

Hirsh realizes masks may be a hard sell, with many concluding the pandemic is over. He warns that it’s not.

“This (RSV surge) is also coming at a time when the flu is starting to rev up and we anticipate that a new variant of Covid is going to cause more respiratory illness, as well,” he said.

Added Gibson, “We’d all be happy if this current surge is short-lived. But we know that RSV is typically an entire-winter kind of phenomenon. If we do see a surge in influenza that coincides with the current surge in RSV we’re going to have a real challenge with bed availability and staffing and the same kinds of things you saw with adults during the Covid surge.”

Although there is no specific treatment or vaccine for RSV, spread can be prevented by covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, washing your hands with soap and water, cleaning infected surfaces, and staying home when sick.

Anyone experiencing severe symptoms such as decrease in appetite, fever, or wheezing should contact their doctor.

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Parents and caretakers of students are also asked to make sure their children are up to date on all school-mandated vaccines to avoid potential increases in other diseases.

This season’s flu vaccine is now available at most local pharmacies, and locations can be found at vaccines.gov/flu.

A full schedule of vaccine and booster clinics around Worcester can be found at worcesterma.gov/coronavirus/vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are also available at pharmacies, as well as at the ongoing weekly free clinics open to the public across Worcester.

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