South Dakota's three largest hospital systems are asking kids under 18 not to visit hospital patients and nursing home residents to help reduce the risk of spreading the flu.

  Avera Health of Sioux Falls, Sanford Health of Sioux Falls and Regional Health of Rapid City are also asking residents to stay away from facilities if they're sick...
  If you have the flu, please be symptom free before going to visit a loved one. Dr. Kimberlee McKay tells Action News; "This is important because we do have patients that actually don't have influenza and who are sick and when you are sick with other things you just can't fight off the flu as well so bottom line is that when they have these exposures it can sometimes make it that much harder for them to heal from the things that they need to heal from."

 They ask you to use your own discretion when following the policy.
 According to the state, the number of flu cases in South Dakota and neighboring states continue to rise.

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