SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) - COVID-19 case rates in the Bay Area are up about 500% compared to two months ago, as the region leads California in highest coronavirus infections.
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Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Regional Campuses at UCSF, told KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" the surge can be explained for a number of reasons.
"There are several explanations," Chin-Hong said. "One is that we're doing more testing in the Bay Area. Another is that the Bay Area is no longer the Bay Area's risk because tons of people are traveling here, they're bringing risk from other areas into the Bay Area."
However, the most compelling explanation is due to how safe residents have been throughout the pandemic. "We are generally unexposed to natural infection because most people in the Bay Area have sheltered in place or have been really conservative for most of the pandemic," he explained. "Like everybody else in the county and around the state, we're moving out now and engaging in life normally, so that puts us at risk for natural infection."
Although increased case rates are concerning, Chin-Hong reassured there are some silver linings. "Our hospitals are doing pretty good still despite weeks of increasing numbers," he said.
At UCSF, there are currently 17 patients among four hospitals with only two in the ICU. This is a massive improvement from January's omicron surge when UCSF hospitals had 152 patients with 16 in ICU.
A fourth explanation for the Bay Area's increased cases is a new subvariant of BA.2 known as BA.2.12.1.
Dr. Abraar Karan, an Infectious Disease doctor at Stanford University, told KCBS Radio the new subvariant may be better at reinfecting people with COVID-19 than previous subvariants. "BA.1 did protect better against BA.2, but doesn't protect as well against this newer variant," he explained. "A lot of us were hoping that after the BA.1 surge, that because there had been so many infections that we wouldn't see a big effect from BA.2, but now with this new variant spreading — BA.2.12.1 — we are seeing more reinfections again."
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