Middletown — Middlesex Hospital officials are limiting visitors to patients' immediate family members or designated support people because of the prevalence of the flu, they announced Wednesday.

Anyone with flu-like symptoms, including fever, vomiting and coughing, diarrhea, body aches and headaches, may not visit patients in the hospital, and patients may only have a maximum of two visitors at a time.

No one under the age of 18 may visit patients unless the hospital gives them permission, and anyone who visits a patient at the Hospital must clean their hands.

"The flu is a serious illness that should not be ignored," a hospital spokesperson said in a news release. "If you have not received a flu shot, the hospital encourages you to do so. If you have the flu, please stay home and rest."

Department of Public Health data shows that nearly 3,000 people had tested positive for the flu in Connecticut as of Jan. 27 — 160 of them in New London County.