“By taking this proactive step, we can help ensure our hospitals remain safe places for our patients to receive high-quality care,” Jacie Volkman, executive director of Prisma’s Department of Infection Prevention, said in a statement.
Prisma Health may allow some exceptions in the case of an imminent death.
The nonprofit health company usually adjusts its visitation guidelines during winter’s higher flu rates and expects to return to normal visitation once illness rates subside in the communities around its hospitals, the company stated.
Prisma runs 19 acute and specialty hospitals, 320 practice sites, and serves more than 1.6 million patients in South Carolina and Tennessee.
The CDC estimates that at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations, and 1,900 deaths have occurred from flu so far this season.
Three children have died from the flu this season, according to the CDC.
The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older who has not yet been vaccinated receive an annual influenza vaccine. About 130 million doses of influenza vaccine have been distributed this season.
As of Dec. 23, 159 measles cases had been reported, centered in Spartanburg County. The health department confirmed the outbreak in October.
Some cases were travel-related or were traced to close contact. Other cases have no identified source, indicating that measles is circulating in the community and can spread further, according to the department.
“We have seen measles spread quickly in unvaccinated households here in South Carolina,” the public health department stated.
“We also know that it can spread quickly in unvaccinated communities based on outbreaks in other states.”