What to look out for when it comes to the flu versus the coronavirus

There have been at least 29 million cases of the flu in the United States and 16 thousand people have been killed so far this season. Of those killed, 105 were children. This is the highest since the flu pandemic in 2009.

We spoke to Steve Hermann with Desert Regional Medical Center who is a registered nurse and manager of infection prevention. He said" Influenza is at its peak right now. We are seeing very high numbers nationwide. Every state across the country is seeing very high numbers. We are seeing that here in California as well.”

Compared to the flu, the World Health Organization is reporting over 79 thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus. 35 of those confirmed cases are in the United States. Hermann said they have had no coronavirus patients at their hospital. If you were looking out for the symptoms of the virus, he said, "The key symptoms of coronavirus are fever, cough, and shortness of breath." He said, there are sometimes more symptoms to look out for when it comes to the flu. "With the flu, you will see respiratory signs and symptoms. Some people may or may not have a fever, they may or may not have a cough, they may have chills, body aches, sore throat as well too."

Whether you feel that you have signs of the flu or coronavirus, Hermann said the best thing you can do is stay home and don't go to the hospitals where you could potentially infect those around you. Hermann said, "In the event, if you feel you need to come to the emergency department, please call ahead of time to let them know. We will put a surgical mask on the patient immediately and place them into a private room. And then we want to protect our staff as well too so we would have our staff wear an N95 mask and a face shield and full isolation protection."

Protecting yourself from the flu and coronavirus is similar in some ways where you need to perform good hand hygiene by washing your hands and using alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Specifically, with the flu, Hermann said vaccination continues to be the number one way to prevent the illness. On the other hand, with coronavirus, Hermann said travel history is what is important. He said, "The person under investigation would have needed to travel to China recently or needed to have exposure to someone who has traveled to China recently."

In reference to the flu vaccine, Hermann said people are still able to get the vaccination and should do it as soon as possible. The predominant strain this season is influenza A.

All in all, looking out for yourself and your health will help the health and wellness of those around you. Hermann ended with, "You want to make sure that you're healthy and to keep the community healthy as well too."