Hospital emergency rooms have been especially busy this week with patients seeking care for respiratory illnesses.

“Our patient volume is very high right now, but not unusual due to the holidays and family gatherings,” Fiona Phelan, a spokeswoman for Lawrence + Memorial and Westerly hospitals, wrote in an email. “... (A)s always, we remind people who don’t need to go to the Emergency Room to utilize our Primary Care, Urgent Care and walk-in centers ...”

Phelan provided links to Yale New Haven Health’s “Get Care Now” and “Video Care On Demand” websites at www.ynhhs.org/get-care-now and www.ynhhs.org/ondemand.

Jean Jordan, a New London women discharged from L+M late Thursday afternoon, said patients were on beds lining the emergency room’s hallways when she arrived there Tuesday afternoon.

“I was one of the lucky ones,” she said. “I waited in one of the big treatment rooms, not the hallway. I was finally admitted at midnight (Tuesday).

Jordan, who is president of the New London Branch of the NAACP, said she understood many of the patients in the emergency room had respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. Many of the patients were “older,” she said.

Jordan sought care for complications of diabetes.

“Everyone was working very hard in that emergency room,” she said. “I never saw anyone slow down.”

Statistics on the state Department of Public Health’s web site show the number of cases of viral respiratory diseases has been climbing in recent weeks. Updated data posted Thursday for the current week show 647 cases of the flu have been reported since Sunday along with 1,274 cases of COVID-19 and 417 cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

In the previous week, which ended Saturday, there were 1,866 cases of flu, 3,705 cases of COVID-19 and 923 cases of RSV.

Flu on the rise across the country

Nationally, the flu season in the U.S. is getting worse but it's too soon to tell how much holiday gatherings contributed to a likely spike in illnesses.

New government data posted Friday for last week — the holiday week between Christmas and New Year's — show 38 states with high or very high levels for respiratory illnesses with fever, cough and other symptoms. That's up from 31 states the week before.

The measure likely includes people with COVID-19, RSV and other winter viruses, and not just flu. But flu seems to be increasing most dramatically, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We expect it to be elevated for several more weeks,” said the CDC's Alicia Budd. So far, though, this is a moderate flu season, she said.

Interpreting flu reports during and after the holidays can be tricky, she noted. Schools are closed. More people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to go see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.

The flu season generally peaks between December and February and CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said she expects it to peak by the end of this month. Officials say this season's flu shots are well-matched to the strain that is spreading the most.

According to CDC estimates, since the beginning of October, there have been at least 10 million illnesses, 110,000 hospitalizations, and 6,500 deaths from flu so far this season. The agency said 27 children have died of flu.

COVID-19 illnesses may not be as escalating as quickly as flu this winter. CDC data indicates coronavirus-caused hospitalizations haven't hit the same levels they did at the same point during the last three winters. Still, COVID-19 is putting more people in the hospital than flu, CDC data shows.

Lauren Ancel Meyers of the University of Texas, said the nation is seeing a second rise in COVID-19 after a smaller peak in September.

"There is a lot of uncertainty about when and how high this current surge will peak,” said Meyers, who runs a team that forecasts COVID-19, flu and RSV trends

A new version of the coronavirus, called JN.1, is accounting for nearly two-thirds of U.S. cases, according to a CDC estimate. But health officials say there's no evidence that that it causes more severe disease than other recent variants.

Associated Press contributed to this story.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com