How bad will flu and Covid be this winter? Hospitals brace for rough season.

How bad will flu and Covid be this winter? Hospitals are already busy and facing staffing shortages.

Hospitals nationwide are preparing for another winter with Covid — the first one that's also expected to include high levels of influenza and other respiratory illnesses that have simmered quietly in the background for the past two years.

Flu cases are already rising in parts of the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatricians, too, are seeing a growing number of children sick with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and enteroviruses.

And despite a downward trend in Covid, tens of thousands of new cases are still being diagnosed every day.

The convergence of viruses is hitting health care systems as they're forced to reckon with staffing shortages that worsened during the pandemic.

"If you go around the nation and ask hospitals how busy they are, every single one of them will tell you: They’re busy," said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an executive associate dean at the Emory University School of Medicine and Grady Health System in Atlanta.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flu-covid-winter-hospitals-brace-bad-season-rcna50616

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