This article was posted on the Detroit Free Press. Read more here.
The Detroit Medical Center announced it will begin enforcing visitor restrictions starting Monday, Dec. 8, at all of its hospitals and other facilities, including the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, to reduce the risk of spreading flu and other respiratory viruses.
“Since we are noticing an uptick in our flu rates, particularly in the children’s hospital, these guidelines are basically to protect our community, to protect our health care workers, to protect our patients and our visitors,” said Dr. Rudolph Valentini, chief medical officer for Children’s Hospital of Michigan, during a Friday, Dec. 5, news conference.
In recent weeks, Valentini said, the hospital has seen a rise in the number of cases of influenza A and influenza B.
“We’ve seen an uptick rate over about three or four consecutive weeks, where the test-positivity rate started in the small, 2% to 4% range, later went up to about 9%, and was 13% two weeks ago,” he said. “We were close to 21% last week” among patients coming through the emergency department.
“We are seeing patients come in with respiratory symptoms. Some are requiring hospitalization. Sometimes, we can treat them with an antiviral medication and get them under control.”
With such a large rise in the volume of people with flu viruses, Valentini said the time felt right to leaders at the DMC to institute the following visitor restrictions:
- Patients may have up to two visitors at one time.
- However, children ages 12 and under, including siblings and other relatives, will not be allowed to visit inpatient hospital floors or observation units.
- Whether the patient has a private room or a semiprivate room, any visitor who has a fever, cough or rash is asked to choose another time to visit.
- People with cold symptoms or symptoms of other illness are asked to visit only after they have recovered.
- Any exceptions to the visitor policy will be handled on an individual basis under the guidance of the direct care team.
If a hospital has a policy that is more restrictive than what is listed above, the hospital staff will continue to enforce it.
Dr. Teena Chopra, the corporate medical director of infection prevention, hospital epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship for Detroit Medical Center, said it appears to be an early surge for flu in metro Detroit.
“We are seeing higher rates very early on, even before the holidays,” she said. “So, the hope is that more people can get vaccinated and protect themselves and we won’t see a very prolonged flu season.”
The following health systems told the Detroit Free Press that as of Friday, Dec. 5, they have yet to begin instituting visitor restrictions:
- Corewell Health
- Henry Ford Health
- McLaren Health Care
- University of Michigan Health
- Trinity Health Michigan
Dana Jay, a spokesperson for Henry Ford Health, said the 13-hospital system also has seen a rise in the percentage of positive flu tests processed by its in-house laboratory, but it hasn’t hit a mark as high as DMC’s.
“The flu positivity rate during the week of Thanksgiving (Nov. 23-29) … reached 9.5%, up from 3.1% in the first week of November (Nov. 2-8). Approximately 35% of the positive flu results last week were identified as Influenza B.”
At U-M Health, the percentage of tests that were positive for influenza was less than 5% at the beginning of the first week in December, said spokesperson Mary Masson.
And at Grand Blanc-based McLaren Health Care, spokesperson David Jones described the percentage of positive flu tests as “low.”
It’s not too late to get a flu vaccine, Chopra said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recommends all eligible people ages 6 months and older get an annual flu shot to prevent severe complications from flu, including hospitalization.
According to the Michigan Respiratory Virus Immunization Statewide Summary, influenza vaccine coverage in Michigan for the 2025–26 season is low. A check on Dec. 5 indicated a little more than 2 million people in Michigan are vaccinated for influenza for the 2025-26 season — about 21% — or 1 in 5 residents.
That compares with a national vaccination rate of 35.8% among U.S. children and 39% of U.S. adults who reported receiving a flu shot in the U.S. as of Dec. 1, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2024-2025 flu season was especially deadly for children in Michigan. The state health department reported 14 pediatric influenza deaths — the highest number recorded in a single season since the state began tracking pediatric flu mortality in 2004.
MDHHS also reported more than 33,000 hospitalizations between October 2024 and May 2025, with weekly hospitalizations peaking at more than 3,100 in February. Emergency departments saw nearly 8,600 influenza-related visits at the height of the season, almost double from the previous year.
“Now is the time to protect yourself and your loved ones,” said Chopra. “The vaccine’s protective effect takes about two weeks, so we recommend getting vaccinated now to prevent flu spread during the holidays.”