United States: Coronavirus cases have stayed the same recently, likely because there was a big rise in cases last summer. However, the flu is starting to spread more, following its usual pattern, and more flu cases are expected in late December and early January.
The most recent weekly respiratory virus report from the county health department only showed 322 cases of the flu last week, even though the figure increased from the 232 noted in the previous fortnight, a number that is still only about half the 420 seen during the same week in the prior year.
As reported by the Medicalxpress, overall, COVID-19 cases exhibit a less steep upward curve with 168 last week, 219 two weeks ago, and 897 of the previous year’s seven-day average.
Positivity ratio of all ordered tests denotes the split with flu tests indicating a positive infection in 5% of tests. The number was about two per cent for coronavirus.
On Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Berg, interim branch medical director of epidemiology and immunization services of the county added that it can be guessed that the COVID rates are now lower due to the summer trend, but it cannot conclusively identify the character of a virus in this world which is not very old.
“There is no doubt that getting prior immunity from vaccinations or prior infection is coming into play, but how much remains to be ascertained,” Berg said. ‘I still expect a large wave this winter as we have had in the previous winters, but they are unpredictable because it is a new virus where we have limited years of circulation’.
We have so, so much more experience with flu season, Berg said and there is no reason to expect that the winter of 2024-25 winter should be any different than other.
The southern hemisphere did have a fairly busy influenza seasons, and the vaccine effectiveness in South America was around 35% when it comes to preventing hospitalization,” he said.
‘It’s a little bit different each year, but you know what, they are not wrong, we are ready for a busy flu season.’