The perfect storm has finally arrived for the nation’s healthcare facilities. Just as influenza season gears up, assisted living communities and other long-term care facilities continue to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response to the twin crises, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is offering practice guidelines on handling a co-infection outbreak. The agency has posted testing and management guidelines for long-term care settings when the coronavirus and influenza viruses are found to be co-circulating, according to McKnight’s Senior Living.

The guidelines are geared toward nursing home residents with acute respiratory illness symptoms, but the CDC said some practices can be adapted for use in other long-term care settings, including assisted-living communities.

A resident with symptoms of COVID-19 or influenza should be tested for both viruses and then isolated accordingly, the CDC recommends. Residents confirmed to have coronavirus should be moved to a dedicated COVID-19 unit, and those with influenza should be placed in a single room or housed with other residents who only have influenza. Residents with co-infections should be housed together as well, the agency said.

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