TAMPA, Fla. — Local doctors have new concerns about COVID-19 in the fall.
“As we move into October and November we move into the typical viral season,” said Associate Director of Tampa General Hospital’s Emergency Department, Dr. Jason Wilson.
That means we’re going to start seeing other viruses along with COVID-19.
“This is really important for people to understand. It’s not just case fatality or total number of COVID-19 cases that’s important,” said Wilson.
Experts say given the COVID-19 numbers we saw in June, July, and August, it was close to overwhelming our healthcare systems.
“We all had to work really hard every day to make room and space to give people the best medicine possible,” said Wilson.
He says it’s more important now than ever that people continue practicing COVID-19 protection strategies.
“If we were to have high numbers of COVID with an influenza epidemic on top of it, or just with your normal viral syndromes that are out there that do require hospitalizations sometimes from patients, we could be in a real mess,” said Wilson.
Experts say doing things like washing your hands, wearing masks, and avoiding large crowds will help stop the spread of all viruses this season.
“I would say this every year anyway but get your flu vaccine. It’s always important but it’s like extra important with a cherry on top this year because we can’t deal with two outbreaks of viruses at one time. We can’t do it in this area,” said Wilson.