There are indications in wastewater testing from a few places in California that a fourth straight summer COVID-19 surge may be on the horizon.
Data from Stanford University’s Wastewater Scan Project indicates virus levels are up across 82% of the sites monitored around the Bay area. KNX News’ Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman spoke to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, where they are starting to see an increase of COVID in their wastewater.
“Where we are is really seeing a slight uptick in all the metrics that we have available,” Chin-Hong said. “These include wastewater epidemiology, of course, emergency room visits, and deaths, but the deaths have remained relatively stable.”
When it comes to variants of the virus, there hasn’t been a specific one that’s stood out to researchers. Chin-Hong explained that about every six months, there’s a variant that sort of decimates the others. He said this pattern is being seen again.
“I think the reason why you probably are not hearing as much about it is because frankly, people are not paying as much attention as they used to, but the virus will continue to evolve and that hasn't stopped,” Chin-Hong said.
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There’s also a decrease in people testing for COVID the way they used to. He said people tend to conjure their symptoms up to allergies or a cold. The virus being treated as a common cold is not ideal because there are still vulnerable people in the community.
“It would make a difference whether or not they knew that they had COVID around them or in their environments, particularly if you're living at home and you're living with elderly parents or grandparents or people who are immunocompromised,” he said.
Chin-Hong said COVID will be mild for the majority of people, but many people still get very sick.
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