A sickness that has shut down cities, states, even countries. Coronavirus has been an issue for the past seven months but what will happen with flu season right around the corner? 

“Honestly the first thing that comes to mind is if a student comes down with the flu or has flu symptoms, the schools shouldn’t automatically assume it’s a Covid case,” sophomore Samantha Wristen said. “I think the schools are already going through such great lengths to keep Covid away, there’s really not a lot more they could really do.”

As we have the option of staying online or going to school, in person, they have many different precautions they are taking to keep their students and staff safe and Covid-free. Some people may follow them as others don’t as much.

“As much as I hate it, masks up at all times,” Wristen said. “I also try to sanitize my hands as much as they can take, and social distance as much as I can. I just want to make sure everyone’s as safe as I hope I am while at school.”

Even though our school is taking precautions, some people could still be sick but not be showing any symptoms. Every flu season we have a nice amount of students who get the flu and the school gets cleaned well. But with both Covid and flu,w will our schools be even cleaner?

“A student could be feeling ill or could have it but may not have symptoms yet and that’s how things could be easily spread around school,” senior Taylor Laws said. “With precautions, I feel that students as well as staff can make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Many students in the district participate in extracurricular activities, sports, and clubs. Covid has already limited these groups, they start a late-season, limited activities, or how many people can be at these events.

“Sadly it has already affected Arlington Future Farmers Association,” Laws said. “Our members have been working for months to showcase their animals at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and they are no longer eligible to do that this year. With being a member of Arlington FFA and being a senior it’s really hard with this Covid stuff going on. I was really looking forward to shows this year because my steer is absolutely killer and I felt that I could’ve done extremely well with him these shows.”

With getting tested for the flu there will definitely be more testing for covid as well since they are similar tests. We could potentially see our cases go higher as well.

“More people will be tested to decipher whether it’s the flu or Covid,” Family Healthcare Associates employee Veronica Muniz said. “Now everyone will go and get tested since they’ll be sick. There will be a lot of confusion due to the symptoms being very similar, which will cause more ER and urgent care visits as opposed to doctor visits due to not being able to tell the difference between covid and the flu.”