Can You Test Positive for COVID-19 and the Flu at the Same Time?
Is it possible for a person to catch the flu and COVID-19 coronavirus at the same time? We posed that question to the Chief Physician Executive at Mohawk Valley Health Systems and were surprised by his answer.
"You can actually have a cold, the flu and COVID-19 all at the same time," said Dr. Kent Hall, speaking on WIBX's First News with Keeler in the Morning. "This virus is new and that's something that we've learned," he said. Hall added that the threat is not such an
issue as we go through the month of April because seasonal flu cases are on the decline and COVID cases are still increasing. Hall said in the beginning of the virus back in January and February, the science on COVID and the flu was that if a person tested positive for the flu, they weren't then tested for COVID-19. He said that it's possible that patients who tested positive for the flu and as a result, were not tested for the coronavirus, could actually have had COVID-19.
The question was posed by a caller into WIBX's Keeler Show from New Hartford who claimed he was hospitalized in February after suffering from flu symptoms and breathing problems. He said he tested positive for the flu, but suspected he also had COVID-19 because the symptoms he suffered from were so similar to the coronavirus. He was not tested for COVID-19 and as a result, he's not sure. "I'm positive I had it," he said.
Dr. Hall said that we'll know a lot more when the highly anticipated anti-body test becomes widely available to the public, which could come in a few months. People who suspect that they actually had both flu and COVID will know a lot more if they find they're actually carrying the COVID-19 antibody. Still, that test won't be able to completely prove 100 percent that a person had both viruses at the same time. While it will be a good indicator, the COVID test would have actually had to have been administered while they actually had both viruses to know for sure, according to reports.
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