Coronavirus in SA | Triple swab encouraged

JOHANNESBURG – A General Practitioner is encouraging the public to get a triple swab to ascertain which infection they might have contracted.

The triple swab tests COVID-19, influenza and the Respiratory Syncytial irus (RSV). 

READ: Experts recommend both COVID and flu jabs 

Dr Samantha Fee says doctors are seeing an increase in respiratory viruses.

Patients with flu are also contracting COVID-19.

Fee is encouraging people to get vaccines for both influenza and COVID-19.

READ: COVID-19 in SA | 8,351 new cases, 3 more deaths recorded

“[It’s] tricky to be specific if we are not testing. We are getting a very seasonally spike in all respiratory viruses.

“The data from April of all of those tested we were looking at 35 percent Omicron, 18 percent RSV and 10-percent influenza. So, yes, we are very busy.

“We haven’t got one patient which we thought should go to hospital. I think there’s a lot less fear in our practice,” she said.