January 1, LA County Confirms First ‘Flurona’ Case

Officials at a COVID-19 testing site in Los Angeles County confirmed the first local case of the so-called “flurona” — a combination of the flu and the coronavirus.

Officials said a child tested positive for Influenza A and SARS-CoV-2, Fox11 reported. The boy’s mother tested positive for COVID-19 the following day. The family had just returned from a trip to Cabo San Lucas.

“Our new year’s resolution was to flatten the curve. And now, simply put, it’s now turned into a nightmare. The technicians are fatigued. Sometimes it feels like there’s no end in sight,” said Steve Farzam, 911 COVID Testing’s chief operating officer.

Roughly 3,000 people are tested daily at Farzam’s site in Brentwood, according to Fox11.

“Our resources have been so inundated with the vast amount of folks who are getting tested. We’re seeing folks who do have some basic cold symptoms, getting repeated tests, showing up almost every day of the week for a COVID test,” Farzam said. “If we can capture influenza-positive early on, then we could presumably prevent them from coming back every day, so we can save those tests for the people who really do need them.”

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‘Flurona’ in California: Testing site in LA County confirms first known local case