![]() ![]() More people are traveling this summer, sending them outside their normal social circles, which helps viruses find new hosts when vacationers return home with unintended souvenirs. Instead, this increase seems to be driven by human behavior. There hasn’t been the kind of out-of-the-blue evolutionary leap that produced the Omicron wave, though many experts think there’s a decent possibility that we could see another game-changing variant like that one within the next couple of years. The CDC is also tracking a slew of co-circulating Covid-19 variants, and all of them seem to be second- or third-generation offshoots of the recombinant variant XBB, each one carrying slight genetic tweaks that make them slightly fitter and more contagious.īut these gradual tweaks to the virus have been expected. CDC data suggests that a number of other pathogens that can cause flu-like symptoms or stomach bugs – including adenovirus, norovirus and rotavirus – are circulating at much higher levels this summer than they were last year. New studies shed light on how genes might shape a person’s experience with Covid-19Ĭovid-19 isn’t the only possible cold culprit this summer, either. ![]() But we do typically see decreases once we hit a plateau,” she said, and that has been the trend in prior summers. ![]() “I wouldn’t say that in every instance a plateau has immediately led to a downturn. Data from Biobot Analytics, a biotechnology firm that has partnered with the CDC, shows that the concentration of coronavirus particles in sewage samples is about a third of what it was at this time last year.Īnd the amount of virus found in wastewater is growing at a much slower pace than it was a few weeks ago, suggesting a plateau in transmission, said Newsha Ghaeli, president and co-founder of Biobot. “It doesn’t seem to be driven by a new variant, which I find encouraging,” Rivers said.Īs testing data has become more limited, wastewater surveillance can offer a more consistent view of transmission trends over time. Rivers notes that the tea leaves are particularly hard to read this time around because laboratory testing and other data collection have been dramatically scaled back since the US ended its public health emergency for Covid-19 in May. She notes that the last time we had so little information on how the virus was spreading was in 2020. So it may yet peter out,” said Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. ![]() Of course, we don’t know what lies ahead. “I do see some early signs that we are heading into another wave. These Covid-19 pandemic-era relief programs are expiring soonīased on the mix of samples Helix receives, Luo says, it has seen a 30% to 40% increase in cases since June. But because cases were already at such a low level when they started to rise, Luo says that even with this upturn, we are still in pretty low-level territory compared with some previous spikes. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. "SNAP/EBT Food Stamp Benefits Accepted" is displayed on a screen inside a Family Dollar Stores Inc. “When we look at our data, we have noticed that since late June to the beginning of July and probably through now, there has been a mild uptick in cases and these are based on samples sourced from pharmacy-based testing and also from health system-based testing,” said Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics at Helix, a gene sequencing company which has been assisting the CDC with tracking the gene changes of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Independent commercial laboratories are also noting the increase. It’s time to stock up on tissues, bingeable TV options and Covid-19 tests. Yes, many signs are pointing to a Covid-19 summer surge – although one that’s far less intense than what emerged the past few summers.Įxperts say they do not expect that cases will be severe or that the uptick will be prolonged, and there are early signs from wastewater data that this wavelet may already be leveling out.īut data posted this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that many Covid-19 indicators, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits and test positivity, are once again on the rise. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |