Flu cases rising as COVID-19 on downturn

As flu cases begin to rise, COVID-19 cases take a downturn, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has revealed. Even though MoH has not yet recorded an excessive amount of influenza cases, some people have been attributing this influenza activity to COVID-19 infection.

People with mild flu, who would normally stay at home and not get tested for flu, are visiting the doctor and getting tested because they think they might have COVID.

Two weeks ago when the uptick in flu cases started, the ministry released a statement indicating that the current flu cases surge has nothing to do with COVID-19 but rather a change of season. Health ministry spokesperson, Christopher Nyanga stated then that the increased number of influenza-like illnesses recorded in most parts of the country could not be classified as a pandemic or an outbreak because it was generally common for such cases to increase during the winter season. “Viruses that cause these influenza-like illnesses generally thrive in dry and cold conditions,” he highlighted. Giving a COVID-19 update on Thursday, public health physician from MoH, Dr Thebeyame Macheke said they have recorded an increasing number of flu like illnesses as more people continue to visit health facilities.

“We see these numbers going up as we head into the winter season. People are complaining about flu. We believe that we should test everyone who has flu but at the moment as we test them for COVID, not all of them test positive. It shows that they have the normal influenza,” he said.

Macheke said people should apply the same COVID-19 precautions for this particular flu and take care of themselves. During this current winter season, MoH has also advised that people should keep warm at all times and should seek medical attention every time they experience any flu-like symptoms.

Macheke further said as the flu cases continue to go up, the COVID-19 infection rate on the other hand is not a cause for concern even though they had recorded a slight change. He said in the week from May 1- 7, they recorded 105 cases of COVID-19 compared to the 94 cases recorded in the previous week. Macheke also pointed out that currently they have 162 active cases and most of them are isolated at home while only one person had been admitted at Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital. He disclosed that in the same week they have recorded two deaths despite not having had such mortalities in quite some time.

Looking at the fact that flu had been circulating at nearly non-existent levels between 2020 and 2021, medical experts said this current flu surge could be tied to people’s behaviour such as taking masks off and mass gatherings.

Also the downturn in COVID cases has been linked to pleasing vaccination rates in the country. Currently, Macheke said they have vaccinated 1.5 million people so far out of the recent 2.4 million figures of the population released by the Statistics Botswana in the preliminary results of the 2022 Population and Housing Census.

He said that means they have vaccinated 64% of the population and it shows they are almost there in terms of reaching the World Health Organisation’s target of vaccinating 70% of the population by mid-year.

Currently, Macheke said they have vaccinated 1.5 million people so far out of the recent 2.4 million figures of the population

released by the Statistics Botswana in the preliminary results of the 2022

Population and Housing Census