'Flurona' And What CA's Omicron Surge Means For Flu Season
LOS ANGELES, CA — If there is an upside to the Omicron-fueled COVID surge infecting about 107,000 Californians per day over the last week, it’s that coronavirus precautions are once again pushing influenza levels down.
The Golden State began to see an uptick in flu cases over the holidays, but flu activity has since plummeted as people pull back on gatherings and take other precautions to protect against the unprecedented Omicron surge.
By mid-December about 2.4 percent of respiratory samples sent to labs monitored by the state tested positive for the flu - mostly Influenza A, which tends to be more severe in elderly people. In January, that dropped to 0.6 percent of samples. Still, there have been 10 influenza deaths reported statewide this season including a 42-year-old man who died over the holidays in San Diego County. He was unvaccinated and had underlying medical conditions, according to the Health and Human Services Agency.
One challenge for patients and doctors, alike, is that it’s hard to tell the flu from the coronavirus by symptoms alone — especially during the Omicron surge. Symptoms of Omicron include cough, fever, body aches, headaches and sore throats much like the flu. However, COVID is far more contagious and deadlier. While there have been 10 flu deaths this entire season, there were 102 COVID-19 deaths Thursday just in Los Angeles County.
State health officials urge anyone experiencing such symptoms to get tested.
There is also still time to get vaccinated for the flu with shots available for free at most pharmacies. In addition to the vaccine, people are urged to take many of the same precautions that will help protect them amid the pandemic:
In addition to getting vaccinated, health officials said people should also do the following:
wash hands thoroughly and often;
use hand sanitizers;
avoid sick people;
avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth;
clean commonly touched surfaces; and
if sick, stay home and avoid contact with others.
According to the California Department of Health and Human Services, flu activity is currently very low in California — much lower than pre-pandemic years. In California, however, flu season tends to peak in February, so the Golden State isn’t out of the woods just yet.
"Flu comes later to California every season than to other parts of the country ordinarily," Stanford Health Care Dr. Stanley Deresinski told ABC7. "We haven't even gotten into the real peak influenza season here, which may not be until February."
This month, the state confirmed its first case of “flurona” in Los Angeles where a child tested positive for both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time.
Health officials in Los Angeles on Friday urged people to postpone nonessential activities where people are unmasked or in close contact. Though there are signs the Omicron surge is plateauing in Southern California and the Bay Area and yet to peak in rural parts of the state, health officials are asking residents to take additional precautions to get to the other side of this deadly surge.
“We need to be extraordinarily cautious when there’s this much community transmission. We’ve actually never had this much community transmission at any other point during the pandemic,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s extraordinarily easy to be exposed. And for some people, when they are exposed, they can go ahead and become infected, and a small number of those people are in our hospital right now fighting for their lives.”
These same precautions taken for the coronavirus are likely to have the benefit of suppressing flu outbreaks heading into peak influenza season.
City News Service contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch
