It is unclear whether having Covid-19 and the flu at the same time results in more severe illness

“Flurona” isn’t a new Covid-19 variant. Nor is it a new disease or any kind of medical term. The word flurona has gained popularity as a way to describe the condition of testing positive for both Covid-19 and the flu at the same time. As flu season picks up in the U.S. and in other countries, some hospitals and Covid-19 testing sites in California and Texas in the U.S., and overseas in Israel are reporting instances of people having both influenza and Covid-19. Co-infections of two separate respiratory diseases aren’t a new phenomenon—and reports of people testing positive for Covid-19 and the flu date to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, infectious-disease experts say. Here’s what you need to know about flurona, or having both the flu and Covid-19 simultaneously.

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