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100,000 Cases of COVID-19--Beware the Flu Season

A new record on Friday, Oct. 30, but wait...

I don't have a crystal ball when it comes to COVID-19, but I did write here in this blog that I thought we could reach 100,000 coronavirus cases by the time the election rolls around — which is now, this coming Tuesday. There was a rapid increase in cases nationally, and I don't think we are done surging on the case front. 

Watch in the coming weeks, we might we reach 150,000 or even 200,000. It depends on what states and individual localities do to limit the spread of the disease. Be alert for the resulting surge in hospitalizations that are sure to come and swamp many already overburdened medical systems.

Which brings me to the topic of the annual flu season. The flu itself can push hospitals to the brink...so what is going to happen if the flu is bad this coming winter and spring. It might make what we saw in New York City earlier in 2020 look like peanuts in comparison to COVID-19 and the flu combined. 

Emergency managers might want to meet with their public health partners now to have the flu/COVID-19 talk in advance of a calamity coming down on their medical community. 

Not to be a Chicken Little on this topic, but we keep having "unprecedented" events in 2020 and I don't expect the early part of 2021 to be any different. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.