What are COVID Symptoms vs. Flu Symptoms?
- * Respiratory viruses are surging in Spain as autumn begins.
Here are the relevant facts from the provided text:
* Respiratory viruses are surging in Spain as autumn begins.
* Flu cases are skyrocketing, notably in the north of Spain.
* Vizcaya province has seen a dramatic increase in flu cases – almost five times higher than last year at this time (506 cases this week vs. 166 last year, and 105 two years ago).
* The dominant flu strain currently is H1N1 (the 2009 pandemic strain), with increasing cases of H3N2 towards the end of the season in the southern hemisphere.
* Vaccine effectiveness may be lower this year because the circulating virus strains might not be a good match for the vaccine strains.
* COVID-19 cases peaked in September at 99.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but are now stabilizing and decreasing, with a current incidence of 37.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (as of October 19th).
* Experts are looking too the southern hemisphere (entering spring) to predict what will happen in Spain.
* Data is currently lacking for the rest of spain, with the Vizcaya numbers being an early indicator.