Once again, many individuals within the Bay Area seem like contracting COVID, and data shows that the rise in cases is just not just anecdotal.
In Santa Clara County, Wastewater samples show virus concentrations are again high within the Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and San Jose watershedsafter a lull this spring that brought the bottom figures in over two years. And nationwide, Positivity rates have also increased significantly in recent weeks.
Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus on the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, has noticed the upward trend each in anecdotes amongst his friends and colleagues and in the info. But the excellent news?
“It's not nearly as high as it was in the winter, it's not even as high as it was a year ago at this time,” he said. Levels for the virus have been lower to this point in 2024 than in 2023, he said. And deaths hit record lows in California this spring, including the primary day in over 4 years with no COVID deaths within the state.
While health officials not publish the variety of COVID cases detected every day, as they did at the peak of the pandemic, local officials proceed to trace COVID levels in wastewater, which might be an early warning system for surges and downturns within the virus. The state health department also continues to trace what quantity of people that test for the virus statewide are positive. Both metrics have shown a rise in recent weeks. as latest variants break through and a slow COVID spring has became a full-blown summer surge.
The Golden State's positivity rate had been declining to around 2% for many of April, but began to rise again in May. On May 1, the positivity rate was 2.1%, and by June 1, it had reached over 4%. This week's update, released Friday, shows positivity continuing to rise, up nearly two percentage points to six.4% on June 10.
Swartzberg acknowledged that, despite rising rates, we’re in a a lot better position than in previous years. Still, he finds it “very concerning” that more seniors and vulnerable people usually are not receiving the updated vaccinations introduced last fall and the beneficial booster shots.
“Fifty-five percent of the population over 65 who are actually at significant risk for poor outcomes are not taking advantage of the opportunity to most likely prevent those poor outcomes,” he said.
“In 2020, we would have been talking about intensive care beds. In 2022, we would have been talking about hospitalizations. Now, in 2024, we are talking about urgent care, emergency room visits and sick people at home,” he said.
And the people still hospitalized with COVID? “They're elderly or immunocompromised, and in my own experience, not a single one of them has had the latest shot,” Chin-Hong noted. “And it's not that they're anti-vaxxers or anything. They're just more comfortable now, and that's my concern.”
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