Cases of flu, RSV, and Covid-19 on the rise during the holiday season
The holiday season has seen an increase in respiratory illnesses throughout Riverside County, including the Coachella Valley.
“We’ve seen an upsurge really since Thanksgiving here in the desert in terms of viral illnesses, mostly RSV and just regular flu. Those have been the two big ones,” according to Dr. Euthym Kontaxis, Medical Director of Eisenhower Health’s Tennity Emergency Department.
There’s also been a slow increase in flu and Covid-19 cases at Desert Care Network hospitals, “but no worse than last year,” according to spokesperson Richard Ramhoff.
“Last year’s height of cases came earlier in the season, with significant contribution from RSV. This year, we are right now in the midst of our winter respiratory virus season with influenza, Covid-19, and RSV all on the rise,” according to Janet Zimmerman, Riverside University Health System spokesperson.
She added, “this week we saw Covid-19 numbers that surpassed our 12-month average. With that said, in our county, the current uptick appears to be led by influenza and influenza-like illness.”
Riverside County’s respiratory disease dashboard indicates there have been more than 12,000 influenza-like illness (ILI) emergency department visits so far this season.
That figure is much less compared to the more than 5,000 Covid-19 and 850 RSV emergency department visits in the same time period.
Broken down further, there were 1,900 influenza-like illness (ILI) emergency department visits in the county for the week of December 17. That number is up from 1,586 during the 2022-2023 season.
While California is listed as “high” for RSV, Desert Care Network only has one case of the virus.
However, not everyone that goes to the doctor for a respiratory illness gets tested for RSV, which may be contributing to a gap in data.
Before she gathered with her family for the holidays, Palm Desert resident Mitzie Kryszan had been dealing with a respiratory illness. After testing negative for Covid-19, she wanted to get tested for RSV since she knew she would be around her infant and toddler granddaughters.
However, she was unable to get tested. There are test kits available for purchase that range in price from $155 to around $400.
“I just question why it is impossible to get tested when you can get tested for the flu. You can get tested for Covid,” said Krysza.
Doctors recommend getting vaccinated against all three common respiratory illnesses and advise staying home if you’re feeling sick to prevent further spread of any illness.
