Panel SA: Flu tests explode in private laboratories

Diagnostic laboratories, which at the beginning of the pandemic opened a new front of care with tests for Covid-19, now register high in tests for influenza, given the sudden increase in flu cases in recent weeks, mainly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro .

At Fleury units across the country, in December, the number of exams grew 14 times compared to the previous month — almost half of them were positive. In comparison with the same month in 2020, the volume of tests is 45 times greater. The company does not reveal the number of exams.

In the Dasa network in São Paulo, there was an 83% increase in demand for exams compared to the same period last year. In all, there were 11,877, around 1,400 of them diagnosed with flu.

In São Paulo, hospitalizations for Covid-19 and respiratory syndromes, including the flu, increased 47% in the last seven days, compared to the previous seven days. Already Rio de Janeiro, which has been experiencing the epidemic since the end of November, had a drop in attendances for the disease, but still with high numbers — in UPAs in the state, 4,094 cases were registered in the third week of this month, compared to 167 in mid-November .

With Andressa Motter e Ana Luiza Tieghi