Claire Hughes in the Albany Times-Union reports that Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, and many other regional hospitals, are restricting visitors because of the strength of this year's flu, the H1N1 strain. The state reports a 35 percent rise last week in transmission. Local hospitals have instituted these rules until further notice:
• A maximum of two visitors in a patient's room at any time.
• Children 12 and under prohibited from visiting patients' rooms.
• Visitors with rash, diarrhea, or respiratory symptoms — including fever, sore throat, cough and shortness of breath — are prohibited from hospital visits.
• The hospitals also urge visitors to use hand-washing stations before entering and after leaving a patient's room.
"The virus is seeming to disproportionately affect young healthy people who have not been vaccinated," St. Peter's Hospital's chief of the Department of Medicine Dr. Alan Sanders said. Read the full story in the Times-Union.


Hospitals with visitor restrictions

• Albany Medical Center

• Albany Memorial Hospital

• Bellevue Woman's Center

• Columbia Memorial Hospital

• Ellis Hospital

• Glens Falls Hospital

• Samaritan Hospital

• St. Mary's Hospital in Troy

• St. Peter's Hospital

• Saratoga Hospital

• Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital