It has always been said that the seasonal flu epidemic reaches its peak in the Balearic Islands between late January and early February. That is at least what happened before the covid-19 pandemic.
However, health sources have revealed to this newspaper that they are detecting more cases of flu in this month of April, a circumstance that they do not know what reason to attribute beyond a possible relaxation of citizens in compliance with the safety measures implemented against the coronavirus at a time when the pandemic seems to be entering its final stretch.
A doctor working in the private health care sector recently revealed that in recent weeks it is not unusual for a patient to be admitted with a respiratory infection and, on being subjected to the mandatory PCR to rule out or confirm covid-19, it is found that the virus circulating in their body is the flu virus, not the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
But what is clear is that there is a higher number of cases of the flu in a month in which traditionally the seasonal virus had almost disappeared.
Flu cases spike compared to previous years
Figures provided by the Directorate General of Public Health for the first 14 weeks of the last four years confirm that in the last three of which records are available, from last March 21 to April 10, 588 cases of influenza have been reported, 45% more than those recorded (405) in those same three weeks of the 2018/19 financial year, when there were two years infront with the outbreak of the pandemic virus.
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