HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Some have called it the “triple-demic.” It happened with flu, COVID-19, and RSV cases skyrocketed across the U.S. late last year.
Experts said cases are trending downward in the country and in the Commonwealth.
Dr. Brooke Rossheim with the Virginia Department of Health said statewide, they’re seeing around 1,500 COVID cases per day. When it comes to the flu, all counties are either in the “Low” or “Minimal” community-impact category. The number of RSV cases are mimicking the baseline number.
Still, many people question why this stark surge in cases even happened. The reasoning for that differs.
“We know there is some seasonality to COVID. During the winter, we’ve seen this before,” Rossheim said.
He added that despite the high number of cases that developed, the data shows that numbers were higher during the Omicron surge than what we saw last year.
Similarly, the flu is also a more seasonal illness, usually peaking in the winter.
For RSV, Rossheim said, many experts believe the sudden spike in cases had something to do with the country re-opening after COVID-pandemic quarantine.
“Schools are open again, and everybody is going back to school. For RSV- essentially- we’re kind of making up for cases that didn’t happen before,” he said. “We got to about 1000 diagnosed RSV cases per week… we were up there for about four weeks or so, and then we saw a fairly sharp decline because it was everyone who was going to get RSV got RSV.”
Rossheim stressed that it is too early to determine whether we’ve seen the end of the vast number of cases for the season.
“Just because we’re in a downhill mode for FLU, for COVID, for RSV doesn’t mean we’re going to stay there,” he said. “Sometimes, we will have a couple of peaks in a flu season… The other thing with COVID is you know COVID-19 is we’ve got some new variants that are around.”
VDH reports that the newest variant XBB.1.5 is responsible for 73% of COVIDcases in the state.
“Vaccination is the best tool we have against COVID-19 and against influenza,” Rossheim said.
He added that keeping your hands and high-traffic surfaces clean and not touching your nose, mouth, or face can also help prevent these illnesses from spreading.
For more information on Covid-19, RSV, the flu, or vaccinations, click here.
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