To help protect patients, staff and the community from a late-season upswing in flu cases, Schneck Medical Center implemented visitor restrictions today.

No more than three visitors may be admitted to a patient’s room at one time, said Stephanie Furlow, spokesperson for the Seymour hospital.

Visitors include immediate family and significant others as identified by the patient. Visitors also must be 18 years old and older, she said.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of people with flu-like symptoms in the last few weeks,” said Anita Reecer, infection preventionist at Schneck.

Reecer urged the public to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible.

Anyone with the following symptoms is asked to refrain from visiting patients: Fever and/or chills, a sore throat, muscle aches, runny or stuffy noses, cough, fatigue, headache and vomiting and/or diarrhea.

All visitors must wash their hands (soap and water) or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer before and after visiting a patient.

Furlow said the number of flu cases being seen this year at Schneck are not any more than other years, but there have been a lot more cases later in the flu season, which ends March 31.

She said people of varying ages have been affected.

“But we are seeing a lot of school-aged children,” she said.