Sick with COVID and the flu: Double infections hit California hard
by California’s hospitals are getting busier with more COVID-19 and flu patients, some of whom are suffering from both viruses at the same time.
The simultaneous sickness is another wrinkle in an already hectic respiratory virus season. Although hospitals are not nearly as crowded as during the emergency phase of the pandemic, they are becoming increasingly so — with Los Angeles County recently entering the “medium” COVID-19 hospitalization category outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the first time this winter.
“Some of these patients are testing positive for more than one virus — influenza definitely likes to travel with COVID. [And] we’re seeing an outbreak of RSV,” said Dr. Daisy Dodd, an infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
The viral cocktail could also include coronavirus or flu with RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, simultaneously. Sometimes a common cold virus, like rhinovirus, is in the mix.
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L.A. County residents can do the same by contacting the county’s Public Health Call Center at (833) 540-0473, which is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The county says free and low-cost treatment is available for eligible patients, including those who are uninsured or on Medi-Cal.
A program funded by the National Institutes of Health, featured at test2treat.org, gives adults who test positive for COVID-19 or flu free access to telehealth care and treatment. That program is expected to run through the early summer. Adults who aren’t positive can still enroll to get free tests shipped to them if they are uninsured or underinsured; on Medicare or Medi-Cal; or in the healthcare system of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Indian Health Service.
The U.S. government is also allowing residents to order free at-home COVID tests through COVIDtests.org. People are able to order four free at-home tests per household. And if they didn’t already place an order between Sept. 25 and Nov. 19, they’re eligible for two separate orders of four tests.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
