Summer COVID surge isn’t cause for alarm, experts say

President Joe Biden and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra this week turned prime examples of the nation’s latest COVID-19 wave, and though it is unclear what variant they’re contaminated with, infectious illness consultants say the newest dominant strains of COVID-19 aren’t any extra harmful than earlier iterations.

Biden, 81, is presently coping with gentle higher respiratory signs and is taking the COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid, in accordance with White Home doctor Kevin O’Connor. That is the third time Biden has had COVID-19 whereas within the White Home.

Becerra, 66, in the meantime, introduced his optimistic take a look at via a spokesperson on July 16. Each proceed to work, albeit remotely.

The brand new omicron variant, KP.3, has taken maintain in latest weeks as warmth waves throughout america have precipitated People to congregate indoors, in accordance with Amesh Adalja, an infectious illness physician at Johns Hopkins College. However this improve in infections has not translated into a rise in COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths, as the newest pressure of the virus isn’t any extra virulent than earlier iterations.

The KP.3 and KP.2 variants, each sublineages of omicron, make up a complete of 61.3% of recent instances within the two-week interval ending July 6, in accordance with the newest information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The KP.3 variant consists of 36.9% of instances, and KP. 2 consists of 24.4% of instances.

The variety of COVID-19 instances ensuing from the KP.3 variant is rising quickly and has rapidly overtaken KP.2 and JN.1 variants as probably the most dominant COVID-19 lineages in latest months. In mid-April, KP.3 made up 2% of all instances.

Up to now two weeks, COVID-19 take a look at positivity has elevated by 8.6% and emergency room visits have elevated by 23.5% within the final week, in accordance with the CDC. However regardless of this improve in illness, deaths have solely elevated by lower than 1%.

Not a lot makes KP.3 totally different from previous iterations of the virus.

“We’re nonetheless within the omicron period,” stated Paul Offit, who’s the director of the Vaccine Training Heart at Kids’s Hospital of Pennsylvania and a member of the Meals and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee.

The COVID-19 virus and its variants will proceed to evolve by way of the receptor-binding area, which is the a part of the spike protein that binds to cells, Offit stated. But it surely’s nonetheless the identical base virus. So for that cause, individuals who have been beforehand contaminated with COVID-19 or vaccinated previously 4 to 6 months will seemingly solely have a really gentle case of the virus.

For many who expertise extra extreme signs, physicians have extra instruments to cope with COVID-19 now, resembling antivirals and monoclonal antibodies. However high-risk people ought to nonetheless proceed to take extra precautions than your common American, consultants say.

“That is all a really totally different state of affairs than when Trump bought COVID and we did not have any of those instruments,” Adalja stated. “Though when an 81-year-old exams optimistic for COVID, we nonetheless need to take it very critically.”

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