'It's seasonal flu, not Covid this time'

Doctors are seeing an increasing number of patients with flu-like symptoms, which they say is earlier than the usual peak flu season. The good news is that it is not Covid-19. "Yes, we are seeing patients with flu-like symptoms including fever, body aches, cough, cold. This is seasonal flu. We used to normally see these cases in post monsoon months. This time we are seeing cases earlier than usual," said Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director at Max Healthcare and senior director, Institute of Internal Medicine.

Overall, he said, it is a mild disease and there is nothing to worry about. Budhiraja said he is not seeing any Covid cases now.

A member of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (Insacog), a network of laboratories monitoring genomic variations of Covid-19 virus, told ET that no new variant has been seen for the last few months. "We are only seeing milder sub-lineages of Omicron and that too in very small numbers," this person said.

Budhiraja suggested precautions like wearing a mask if symptomatic. "Most people recover in 3-5 days so there is nothing to worry about," he said.

Kirti Sabnis, infectious disease specialist, Fortis Hospital Mulund & Kalyan, said the rainy season is resulting in many people suffering from seasonal flu-like cough, cold, body pain and fever. "The monsoon season is a period of viral illnesses, mainly respiratory diseases usually transmitted by the flu, which means there is an uptake in patients suffering from influenza,"she said.

She said among the various types of influenza, the dominant ones are influenza H3N2, influenza A or H1N1.