TULSA, Okla. — Cold and flu season is upon us and the schools and daycares are being hit hard by seasonal viruses like RSV.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows positive RSV cases in Oklahoma are nearly five times greater than they were this time last year. One Tulsa daycare said their classrooms are much emptier as a result.
Respiratory syncytial virus can affect anyone but mainly targets children under the age of two. In Tulsa County, the Health Department said around 60,000 kids are diagnosed with the virus each year. Infections peak right around this time, and they're higher than they were last year.
CDC data shows this time last year, cases of RSV were very low with less than 250 positive cases recorded in Oklahoma. But this year, that figure is five times higher with nearly 1,250 positive tests recorded last week. The rise is hitting daycares especially hard.
Brandi Flores is a teacher at Learn and Play Daycare. She said so many kids have been sick that their daily enrollment has been nearly cut in half.
“Normally we have eight in the infant room so when we had that one through, it was just that one so it was seven infants out in that room. Hand, foot and mouth disease was going through at that time as well. It’s like we were just getting hit left and right with everything,” said Flores.
Flores said enrollment at Learn and Play Daycare stayed around 60-80 kids, and now they see less than half of that on a daily basis because so many are out sick. To keep kids healthy, Flores said, they’re double-cleaning everything.
“We’ll shut down a room if we have a lot of kids out if we got a lot of kids out with the stomach bugs and stuff like that, we would shut down that room. We bleach all the toys, we do have a fogger that we’ll use and got through the rooms and fog the rooms at nighttime just to try to get rid of everything,” said Flores.
Even still, Flores said just last week they had at least two cases of children with RSV which is highly contagious. According to the CDC, it can lead to pneumonia, dehydration, labored breathing and bronchiolitis. Flores said if enough kids or staff are sick, they will close their doors.
“Staff is sick, like there’s just not enough staffing because we’ve had too many covid exposures or something like that. People do get upset and want changes to be made. We’ve had to shut down and not let parents in at all and just drop off at the door. So we do try to make changes and sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn’t work,” said Flores.
The Tulsa Health Department said the best way to prevent contracting RSV is frequent hand washing, avoiding sick people, covering your cough and sneezes and staying home if you're sick.
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