An Unwelcome Visitor Returns This Summer. Hint: It’s Covid.
Summer is bringing us hot days, vacations—and a Covid bump. If you are surprised to learn that your neighbor, co-worker or kid’s best friend just tested positive for Covid-19, don’t be. Measures of Covid rates including virus levels in wastewater, ER visits, test positivity and hospital admissions are increasing nationally, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The good news is that we are starting from very low rates. Doctors are watching the current trends for clues to Covid’s yearly pattern going forward. Other respiratory viruses such as flu and RSV typically start spreading in the fall and peak in the winter.
Covid, a much newer virus that has mutated a lot since emerging a few years ago, so far has had winter surges as well as summer bumps, like we’re seeing again this year. One possible factor: Heat waves are sending people fleeing for air-conditioned indoor spaces, where Covid transmits more easily compared with outside. Summer travel might also play a role, as people crowd into airports and bring their germs along with them crisscrossing the world.
“We are in a very warm year and people are spending a lot of time indoors," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseasesand epidemiology at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. “People are congregating in air-conditioned settings and that is providing an opportunity for transmission." Covid-19 hospitalizations as of July 15 are up 10.3% from the previous week, according to CDC data.
Read more on livemint.com
