OTTAWA — The president of the Canadian Medical Affiliation is warning that the collision of COVID-19 and chilly and flu season may carry a brand new host of health-care challenges when the chilly climate units in.
Dr. Sandy Buchman says given the overlap in signs, it may be exhausting for docs to differentiate the sniffles from the lethal illness.
Buchman says COVID-19 testing centres might be overloaded this winter between an increase in chilly and flu instances and a doable second wave of the novel coronavirus.
Canada’s chief public well being officer Theresa Tam instructed reporters final week that officers are working to assist hospitals put together for an anticipated convergence of viral exercise.
Buchman says many COVID-19 hygiene habits — equivalent to hand-washing, bodily distancing and sporting masks — can scale back individuals’s dangers of contracting the widespread chilly or flu.
He says it’s all of the extra essential that Canadians get their flu vaccine this yr, however sufferers ought to count on longer wait instances provided that capability will likely be restricted by COVID-19 restrictions.