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As flu season begins, officials are hoping vaccinations paired with practices for preventing COVID-19 transmission will have a positive impact.
“Hopefully, it will lessen the rate of flu in the population,” Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said.
In North Carolina, influenza infections are common in late fall and early spring, with peaks in January or February. Badger said Cherokee County typically follows those trends, with flu cases starting in October and steadily increasing until a spike at the end of December or early January.
The Cherokee County Health Department started receiving flu vaccines last week. While appointments usually aren’t required, Badger is recommending appointments. Flu vaccines are $25 at the health department. Vaccines are also available at hospitals, pharmacies and medical offices.
Badger said earlier is better when it comes to the flu vaccine, as it takes a couple of weeks to be effective.
In a press release last week, state Health Director Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson said it is important to get vaccinated for the flu for protection and to avoid overwhelming hospitals, as vaccination can make illness milder. The vaccine works to prevents the virus, not the symptoms, so the flu vaccine will not have a direct impact on COVID-19.
Badger said the basics of washing hands and keeping a safe distance from others keep people healthier during the spread of any illness. He hopes those COVID practices, combined with flu vaccines, will lessen the number of people getting sick and protect more vulnerable populations, like the elderly and young children.
“There’s no real downside to that,” he said.
Symptoms for both influenza and COVID-19 are similar. Badger suspects many health-care providers will order tests for both flu and COVID-19 when a patient presents symptoms.
“That’s how it was early on,” Badger said. “Doing flu, COVID and strep.”
Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches, body aches, chills, fatigue and nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. COVID-19 symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, fatigue, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea and new loss of taste or smell.
The state will post its flu report every Thursday starting Oct. 8. Since the flu is not a reportable illness – with COVID-19, there is a standing order to report if someone tests positive – the county does not have plans to report local flu data as it has been reporting COVID-19 data as it will not be as accurate.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 117 active cases. Since March, the county has had 598 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and 14 people who passed away after testing positive.
Using data collected from 579 cases, the state reported Monday that 11 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 9 percent were ages 18-24, 29 percent were ages 25-49, 25 percent were ages 50-64, 13 percent were ages 65-74 and 13 percent were ages 75 or older.
Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider, the health department or urgent care. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear 2-14 days after exposure.
Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but older adults and those with underlying medical conditions appear to be at higher risk for severe illness. The CDC said the virus spreads very easily, and risk of spreading the virus increases the closer and longer a person’s interaction with another is.
As of Monday, North Carolina had 194,381 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 3,247 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 176,000 of those cases are presumed to be recovered.
More than 2.8 million state residents have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 4-5 percent of the tests returned positive daily.