Despite all the bad news we wake up to every day now about the coronavirus, there is some good news from local health officials.
The top doctors with the San Diego County health agency saying there are signs now that the social or physical distancing we’re doing, along with the frequent washing of hands and sanitizing things, are working in the fight against the coronavirus. And they say one of the indicators they’re seeing is what’s happening with the seasonal flu this year.
The latest report on the flu in the county, which comes out every week and every year during every flu season, shows that that there is reason to believe the coronavirus curve twil begin to significantly flatten out sometime in the next few weeks or even days.
The weekly report shows a big drop in the number of flu cases reported to the county health department, with 84 percent fewer cases than the week before and a 71 percent fewer than the average cases of flu over the last three years at this time of the flu season.
And the medical director for infectious diseases at Rady children’s Hospital says they saw a big drop off last week in the number of flu cases and even other contagious respiratory illnesses there.
But county officials are telling us all to keep following the guidelines and to keep doing what we’re doing. Everybody. And they say we can avoid things getting as bad as they have become in places like New York if we do.
As the county’s Dir. Nick Yphantides put it, “We have to come together individually for the collective good.”
(Photo credit San Diego County Newscenter)