I am more concerned about the second stress point: the onset of seasonal influenzaAlmost certainly, the level of coronavirus circulating in the community will begin to rise this week. Recently most clusters of infection have occurred within private houses, suggesting community transmission has been corralled by a combination of lockdown and our ability to test and trace contacts of those infected. But with prompt contact tracing and a regional lockdown, it should be possible to avoid a countrywide lockdown for the next three months or so. A recent study from China has given us some clues: it found some 57 per cent of Covid-19 cases were co-infected with influenza. And patients co-infected with the SARS-CoV-2 and influenza B virus were more likely to be sicker and have a poorer outcome.

Source: The Irish Times June 29, 2020 05:01 UTC