Doctors seeing more and more patients coming down with COVID-19 and the flu

ATLANTA — As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Georgia, many area doctors are beginning to see an uptick in flu cases as well, suggesting that their early fears of a potential “twin-demic” may be coming true.

It couldn’t happen at a worse time, especially with the holidays right around the corner.

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden spoke with medical experts on Tuesday who said the COVID-19 pandemic could become even deadlier in the coming weeks.

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For Betty Ross and her husband, the pandemic has been nothing short of tragic.

“We’ve lost a few friends, and some of them have been young,” Ross said. “I’m just thankful to be alive.”

Ross said she and her husband of 48 years both contracted the virus in March. She also got diagnosed with it again in October and spent nearly a week in the hospital

“I was at Emory hospital, and my temperature went to 107.6,” Ross said. “I still don’t have any taste or smell.”

Since then, the couple have been playing it safe by social distancing and wearing their masks in public.

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But as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Georgia, doctors are becoming more and more concerned, as many are beginning to treat patients who are infected with COVID-19 and the flu, sparking fears over a potential twin-demic.

“A lot of them are having more trouble breathing, more shortness of breath, more exertion and just walking up a flight of stairs; we are seeing a much higher fever in this group as well,” said Dr. James Yost, chief medical officer of Peachtree Immediate Care.

He told Seiden that since the start of the flu season, he and his staff have been performing hundreds of three-way tests at their drive-thru locations throughout the metro.

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The test can determine if a person has COVID-19, the flu or both.

This all comes as a new study published in the British Medical Journal reported that patients infected with the flu and COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to die as someone with only COVID-19.

“It is still not too late to go and get a flu shot. Please go out and get your flu shot. They’re very beneficial this year more than ever,” Yost said. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s not pull the shade on the light before the tunnel shows.”

Health care workers in Georgia get COVID-19 vaccine in first large-scale effort for state Hospitals in metro Atlanta are expected to begin receiving doses of the vaccine on Wednesday.