Why would it decrease it? It seems to me it would only increase it. The people likely to get the flu are the same group likely to get covid. The flu is harder to get than covid.
> Why would it decrease it? It seems to me it would only increase it.
The people seeking tests were mainly two groups: people particularly concerned about COVID-- because of known exposure or COVID-specific symptoms, or people who occupationally are being tested because of surveillance.
If you water that down with people with the flu, you'd expect the positivity rate to go down: not that influenza carriers are even more likely to have COVID than those previous groups.
Influenza surveillance is showing "minimal" activity in my area, but a huge explosion in positivity rates for COVID-19 (3.3% to 5.4% in the past couple of weeks).
mlyle|5 years ago
The people seeking tests were mainly two groups: people particularly concerned about COVID-- because of known exposure or COVID-specific symptoms, or people who occupationally are being tested because of surveillance.
If you water that down with people with the flu, you'd expect the positivity rate to go down: not that influenza carriers are even more likely to have COVID than those previous groups.
Influenza surveillance is showing "minimal" activity in my area, but a huge explosion in positivity rates for COVID-19 (3.3% to 5.4% in the past couple of weeks).