Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Jul 31, 2024 8:00:12 GMT
California is still getting crushed by COVID. When will it end? - Published July 30, 2024
COVID-19 has raged through California over the past few months, and with cases still headed skyward, the virus shows no signs of retreating.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Golden State, along with Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, is now the most afflicted region in the U.S. Wastewater data, which is often used to help predict future surges, also reveals that several Bay Area cities like San Francisco and San Jose are grappling with “high” Sars-Cov-2 levels compared with other regions.
“It’s very strange that the West Coast continues to be high,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at UC San Francisco, told SFGATE.
In previous years, cases have peaked around July and August or even as late as September before quickly nosediving, CDPH data shows. However, this year’s wave is particularly unusual for a number of reasons. Though the exact cause is still unclear, Chin-Hong suspects that the oppressively hot weather, combined with devastating wildfires, could be to blame since people are forced to shelter together indoors. Summer travel certainly hasn’t helped, either, since more people are cramming into airplanes and spreading the virus to other parts of the globe.
Though not as severe as the January peak, current COVID concentrations are still higher than at this time last year, Amanda Bidwell, a wastewater researcher and Stanford data analyst, told SFGATE. The wave also started earlier; in 2023, wastewater concentrations began to rise in late June, she said, but in 2024, they started to rise toward the end of April.
Since then, viral concentrations have been increasing at more than half of the wastewater test sites in California. “SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in 100% of samples collected over the last 21 days,” she said, adding that new variants — KP.2 and KP.3 — are becoming more and more prominent.
To stay protected, Chin-Hong recommends that seniors and immunocompromised individuals get vaccinated, either with the current version or the updated one coming out in the fall. Having access to Paxlovid, maintaining awareness of rising case rates and properly masking also can help people keep themselves — and others — safe, he continued.
Chin-Hong doesn’t see an end to the surge in sight yet, which he acknowledged is frustrating.
“This will pass,” he said of the increasing COVID cases. “I know people are just so tired of it, but there are still sick people in the hospital.”
COVID-19 has raged through California over the past few months, and with cases still headed skyward, the virus shows no signs of retreating.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Golden State, along with Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, is now the most afflicted region in the U.S. Wastewater data, which is often used to help predict future surges, also reveals that several Bay Area cities like San Francisco and San Jose are grappling with “high” Sars-Cov-2 levels compared with other regions.
“It’s very strange that the West Coast continues to be high,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at UC San Francisco, told SFGATE.
In previous years, cases have peaked around July and August or even as late as September before quickly nosediving, CDPH data shows. However, this year’s wave is particularly unusual for a number of reasons. Though the exact cause is still unclear, Chin-Hong suspects that the oppressively hot weather, combined with devastating wildfires, could be to blame since people are forced to shelter together indoors. Summer travel certainly hasn’t helped, either, since more people are cramming into airplanes and spreading the virus to other parts of the globe.
Though not as severe as the January peak, current COVID concentrations are still higher than at this time last year, Amanda Bidwell, a wastewater researcher and Stanford data analyst, told SFGATE. The wave also started earlier; in 2023, wastewater concentrations began to rise in late June, she said, but in 2024, they started to rise toward the end of April.
Since then, viral concentrations have been increasing at more than half of the wastewater test sites in California. “SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in 100% of samples collected over the last 21 days,” she said, adding that new variants — KP.2 and KP.3 — are becoming more and more prominent.
To stay protected, Chin-Hong recommends that seniors and immunocompromised individuals get vaccinated, either with the current version or the updated one coming out in the fall. Having access to Paxlovid, maintaining awareness of rising case rates and properly masking also can help people keep themselves — and others — safe, he continued.
Chin-Hong doesn’t see an end to the surge in sight yet, which he acknowledged is frustrating.
“This will pass,” he said of the increasing COVID cases. “I know people are just so tired of it, but there are still sick people in the hospital.”