While its difficult to differentiate between the two with the hallmark symptoms of Covid – loss of smell and taste – gone with the emergence of Omicron variant, doctors say its important to get tested so that people get correct treatment without wasting time.
“Both Covid and flu cases are on the rise. We are seeing that most of these on testing are Covid positive,” confirmed Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director,
. Doctors say while the symptoms generally last for 3-5 days and are manageable, fatigue is persisting for a longer period of time.
Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, Indraprastha , Delhi believes that since the symptoms are similar, it’s important that people consult doctors and get themselves tested. “Even as the treatment doesn’t change much, doctors can watch out for complications which may happen if a person is infected with Covid. It’s therefore important to get tested and consult your doctor,” he said.
Cases of seasonal flu have been on rise in Delhi. Kerala, Maharashtra, and UP are among those states which have confirmed several Swine Flu cases so far. The good news is that so far doctors have not seen cases of mixed infections meaning flu mixed with Covid-19.
“There has been a marked increase in patients exhibiting flu- like symptoms and these patients are testing positive for influrenza A or H1N1. So far there has been no crossover between these two separate groups of infections,” said Rahul Pandit, director-critical care,
hospital Mumbai.
K Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) said that it’s very difficult to differentiate between a seasonal flu and Covid. He said some people may experience severe throat pain in Covid and stuffy nose if they have flu. But there is a need to strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviour as virus is going to be around.
“We have to accept the fact that Covid virus is going to be around and we can’t say yet that we have reached endemicity. We are hovering around the airport but have not landed yet,” he said.
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