If it seems like there are a lot of people around you who have COVID-19, you are not alone.
California’s coronavirus levels are at their highest, according to federal data Wastewater It’s surging to levels not seen in a summer season since 2022, signaling widespread and worsening COVID-19 infections.
“We’re clearly seeing an increase in cases,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional director of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California Hospital.
Hudson said they are seeing clear spikes in doctors’ offices and clinics where people are seeking outpatient care, but thankfully, not many people are having to be hospitalized for COVID-19 at this time.
“The wastewater numbers are still trending up, so we’re definitely seeing more and more cases,” Hudson said.
She urged people to get tested for COVID-19 if they have any respiratory symptoms.
“Right now, if you live in Los Angeles and have any cough or cold symptoms, you should really assume it is COVID-19 until proven otherwise,” she said.
This recent spread has been primarily driven by FLiRT variants, a collection of highly contagious sibling strains. Last winter’s dominant strainJN.1.
One FLiRT strain in particular, known as KP.3.1.1, is “really growing fast,” Hudson said. Quote In the two weeks ending July 20, the strain made up 17.7% of coronavirus samples nationwide, up from 6.8% in the same period last year.
Based on this rate of growth, the strain is likely to become increasingly dominant over the coming weeks, Hudson said, “so unfortunately, I think we’re going to see more cases.”
Levels of coronavirus in California’s wastewater have been “very high” for the third consecutive week, the CDC said Friday. 37 states And the District of Columbia, where nearly three in four Americans live, has reported “high” or “very high” levels of coronavirus in its wastewater.
In the seven days ending July 20, the most recent data available, coronavirus concentrations in California’s wastewater reached 93% of their peak in summer 2022. They have already surpassed last summer’s peak.
And there are signs this summer’s COVID-19 wave may have staying power. California’s coronavirus levels in wastewater have remained at “high” or “very high” levels for seven consecutive weeks, with no signs of peaking. The 2022 summer wave saw 16 weeks of sustained high or very high virus levels, compared with eight weeks last summer’s wave.
Experts point out that the proliferation of the FLiRT variant could prolong the spread of infection this summer because it is particularly adept at evading the immune system.
“Certainly, we seem to be churning out more and more variants, more quickly, but that’s probably to be expected,” Hudson said. “This virus is still very new to the human population, and it wants to survive, and the way it does that is to evade immunity” — that is, to evade people’s defenses by evolving in a way that allows it to continue the chain of transmission.
And many people are abandoning careful pandemic behaviors, and “things are pretty much going back to normal,” Hudson said.
parable Paris OlympicsCOVID-19 is currently being treated like any other respiratory illness: Procedures for infected athletes include wearing masks if they’re well enough to train, isolating when not training and avoiding certain shared areas like gyms.
High levels of coronavirus in sewage have been reported across California. In the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose, and Palo Alto, High coronavirus levels Fresno County health officials announced high coronavirus levels across the San Joaquin Valley last week for the first time since late May.
The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in California has surpassed its peak from last summer. In the seven days ending July 22, 13.8% of COVID-19 tests came back positive, surpassing last summer’s high of 13.1%.
Anecdotally, there are numerous reports of people catching COVID-19 at events like weddings, work meetings, airplanes, and being extremely ill for several days. Some people have been surprised that this COVID-19 variant is more severe than previous ones, but there is no indication that the latest variant causes more severe illness overall.
Older people and those with weakened immune systems remain most at risk.
Hundreds of COVID-19 deaths are reported in the country every week. Journalists were among those who recently died from complications of COVID-19 and pneumonia. Dan Collins(80) is the co-author of “Now You See Me: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11.”
His wife, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, I have written She and her husband both contracted COVID-19. “For me it felt like a bad cold, but Dan woke up one night unable to breathe. We went to the intensive care unit at the nearest hospital but he did not recover,” she wrote.
Overall, deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 appear to be lower than they were last summer.
In Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, an average of 286 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the week ending July 20. That’s steady from 291 the previous week, about half the peak from last summer and a quarter of the peak in summer 2022.
At the University of California, San Francisco, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients appears to be stabilizing, but “there are a lot of COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals. Almost all of them are infected. It’s spreading through music gatherings, dining out, etc.”, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the university.
Chin-Hong said there could be a few reasons behind the signs that hospitalizations are stabilizing. In general, herd immunity to COVID-19 is growing. Also, COVID-19 Antiviral Drugs The widespread availability of antibiotics such as Paxlobidi may be keeping at-risk people out of hospital.
However, due to COVID-19 infection Growing or likely to grow Chin-Hong suggested that high-risk people in 35 states and the nation’s capital who have not yet received their latest COVID-19 vaccine should get it now, rather than waiting until an updated vaccine becomes available in the fall.
According to CDC guidelines, people 6 months of age and older should be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations starting in September. People 65 and older should Second vaccination Four months have passed since the first renewal vaccination, but many elderly people have not even received a single renewal vaccination.
People with immunodeficiencies People should have received one or two doses of the vaccine, which has been updated since September, and can get a booster vaccination two months after their last recommended dose.
“We’re not seeing any signs of abating,” Chin Hong said of the spread of COVID-19. “Older adults and people with weakened immune systems would be well advised to get tested now. We would have thought that COVID-19 would have plateaued and started to decline by now, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, probably because the rest of the country has caught up with states like California.”
Hawaii was the only state where the CDC estimated COVID-19 cases were likely in decline.
By a variety of metrics, Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 indicators continue to rise. For the week ending July 21, the county reported an average of 413 cases per day, up from 359 the previous week. Officially reported case counts are considered an undercount because they don’t take into account an overall decline in at-home testing and people getting tested, but the numbers are still useful for understanding infection trends.
Los Angeles County’s coronavirus levels in wastewater reached 40% of last winter’s peak in the 10 days leading up to July 13, up from 36% in the 10 days leading up to July 6.
In the week ending July 21, 3.4% of emergency room visits in Los Angeles County were coronavirus-related, up from 2.8% the previous week.
Hudson urges people to get tested repeatedly if they have COVID-19 symptoms, up to the fifth day after symptoms began. If someone feels unwell, they may test negative the first day or two after symptoms first appear, but later test positive.
Knowing if you have COVID or not is important “because if you think you don’t have COVID, you may go back to your normal activities, go to work and not wear a mask, and unfortunately that would be a very easy way to continue to spread COVID,” Hudson said.
The CDC is urging people Stay home and away from others In case of illness. People Can be resumed Once your symptoms improve and your fever goes down without the use of medications like Tylenol or Advil, you can resume normal activities within 24 hours, but the CDC recommends taking extra precautions like wearing a mask and staying away from others for another five days to prevent spreading the virus to others.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Suggest Those with symptoms will need to receive a negative test result before being released from isolation. The agency also recommends that those with symptoms or no symptoms continue to wear masks in the presence of others for 10 days after they start feeling sick, or after their first positive test result if they are asymptomatic. Two consecutive negative tests Keep them apart for at least a day.
Los Angeles County is also advising infected people to avoid contact with high-risk people for 10 days after symptoms appear or their first positive test result.
If a patient recovers and then falls ill again, COVID-19 Rebound It needs to be isolated.
People who don’t want to catch COVID-19 can reduce their risk of infection by wearing a mask in indoor public places. This strategy is especially effective when traveling, such as on a plane. Traveling is “a very common way that people get infected,” Hudson said.
Doctors say it’s still wise to take careful precautions to avoid catching COVID-19, such as avoiding contact with people who are sick. Every new infection carries the risk of long COVID-19, a sometimes severe illness that can last for months or even years after infection.
What is the risk of COVID-19 lasting for a long time? Diminished Since the pandemic began, the risk of infection has decreased significantly thanks to vaccines, but the risk of contracting COVID-19 remains high.
“People will still get long COVID-19,” Hudson said, “and long COVID-19 is something we all want to avoid.”
