Updated CDC Resources to Prepare for COVID and Flu Spikes is Now Available (SNF/AL)

For the past several years, Michigan has experience a spike of COVID-19 cases during the summer.

Be Prepared: CDC’s Clinical Guidance for Outpatients With Acute Respiratory Illness at Higher Risk of Severe COVID-19 and/or Influenza provides information that clinicians might find helpful when evaluating patients with acute respiratory illness. Beyond a summer spike, SARS CoV-2 and influenza co-circulate in the fall and winter.

Early treatment for patients at higher risk for severe COVID-19 can prevent hospitalization. For influenza, treatment can mitigate severity of disease. Multiplex testing for influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 can facilitate early diagnosis and antiviral treatment and is becoming more affordable and more widely available. It is important that patients and clinicians consider using multiplex testing to ensure faster time to treatment, especially among persons at risk for severe disease, such as older adults.