Does it seem like a lot of people you know are getting sick?
You are not alone. Respiratory disease season is in full swing in California and much of the country.
In Los Angeles County, approximately 23% of the population attends events. Weekly text message-based surveys More people reported having symptoms of cough or shortness of breath in the week to December 10, higher than the total (21%) reported during the peak of respiratory illnesses in late summer. There was a lull in early summer, with only 10% of survey respondents reporting coughing or shortness of breath.
Meanwhile, coronavirus concentrations in wastewater in Los Angeles County are at their highest since the summer.
Across the state, levels of influenza-like illness are considered, including viruses other than influenza, such as coronaviruses. expensiveAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationally, COVID-19 is the leading cause of new respiratory hospitalizations and deaths, with about 1,000 deaths per week.
Despite the chorus of coughs, trends in virus concentrations in sewage and hospitalizations are currently more moderate than last year. Additionally, the health care infrastructure in Los Angeles, Orange County, and the San Francisco Bay Area is in good shape, with no signs yet of a significant increase in patients requiring intensive care.
Due to COVID-19, “infection rates continue to rise, but certainly not as dramatically as they did two winters ago or last winter. So the numbers we're seeing continue to rise. Time will tell if it continues to increase,” said Dr. Nancy Ginn, regional medical director of quality and clinical analysis for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “Intensive care units are not going to be filled with coronavirus-related illnesses, and that's a good thing.”
Still, Jin and other doctors say there's reason to be cautious. They are urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, telling those who are sick to go home and those who are healthy to avoid people who are sick. The latest coronavirus variant, JN.1, is especially more contagious and spreading more widely. And with COVID-19 and influenza still on the rise, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) plateauing at high levels, it's unclear how bad the respiratory season will be this year.
“Respiratory viruses are widespread, and RSV hasn't really started to decline yet,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “Influenza is on the rise right now. And with COVID-19…the numbers are definitely going up.”
And some areas of California are being hit harder than others. The Fresno County Department of Public Health said the county's hospitals are seeing a spike in respiratory illnesses due to “historic numbers of hospitalized patients and people visiting emergency departments with non-urgent medical problems. , reported a “severely affected condition.”
The Sacramento region and eastern Sierra region are at the “moderate” level of positive coronavirus hospitalizations, while the rest of California's counties are at the “low” level, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection)
Coronavirus levels in Los Angeles County's wastewater are 39% of last winter's peak, the region's last major surge, according to data for the week ending Dec. 9, the most recent available.
The rate of positive coronavirus tests also continues to rise. About 11% of samples tested at Los Angeles County's sentinel surveillance labs tested positive during the week ending Dec. 16, up from 10% the previous week.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, coronavirus concentrations at Santa Clara County's largest wastewater plant have reached 72%, the highest since their peak last winter, according to the local public health department.
UC San Francisco hospitals are seeing an increase in the number of coronavirus-positive admissions, which remain high but lower than they were at this time last year, Chin-Hong said. As of Wednesday, those hospitals had 27 coronavirus-positive patients. By contrast, in mid-December there were less than 20 people.
Across California, the number of weekly coronavirus hospitalizations is at its highest level since last winter. There were 2,924 new coronavirus hospitalizations for the week ending Dec. 16, an increase of nearly 50% from the previous month, according to data released by the CDC.
This season has so far not surpassed last year's COVID-19 levels in terms of weekly hospitalizations. Doctors in Los Angeles County say they don't see intensive care units being overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, although emergency clinics are overcrowded.
influenza
The number of influenza cases continues to increase in California. There were 1,007 new influenza hospitalizations in the week ending Dec. 9, a 20% increase from the previous week, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The number of recent influenza hospitalizations is about one-third of last winter's peak.
In Los Angeles County, about 18% of samples tested at sentinel surveillance laboratories tested positive for influenza, compared to 14% the previous week.
RSV and other viruses
RSV can cause serious illness and death in infants and older adults. In Los Angeles County, the rate has plateaued at a relatively high rate. In the week ending December 16, about 12.3% of samples tested at surveillance laboratories tested positive for RSV, about the same as the previous week's reading of 12.5%.
The county's RSV test positivity rate has mostly hovered between 12% and 13% since early November, with a one-week peak of 15%. This represents a season when RSV is particularly active.
Since the 2017-18 season, only two other seasons have had higher positivity rates. Last year's terrible season when the rate peaked at about 20% and leveled off, and the 2018-19 season when it leveled off at about 20%. Up to about 15%.
There are other viruses that can cause illness, such as rhinoviruses and enteroviruses. Most people infected with these viruses develop a cold. In Los Angeles County, 15% of samples tested at surveillance labs test positive for rhinoviruses or enteroviruses.
emergency room
In Los Angeles County, about 5% of emergency room visits were classified as coronavirus-related in the week ending Dec. 17, enough to raise moderate concern.
This is not as bad as this time last year, when about 13% of emergency department visits were classified as coronavirus-related.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California is considered to have high levels of influenza-like illness, including non-influenza illnesses such as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus.
(CDC)
What you can do
Doctors believe many more people contracted the respiratory virus over the Christmas holidays.
Wearing a mask can prevent sick people from spreading the virus to others and lower the risk of healthy people getting sick.
Many people who test positive for coronavirus or influenza are candidates for antiviral drugs, such as Paxlobid for COVID-19 and Tamiflu for influenza. Medicines can reduce the severity of the disease.
A program funded by the National Institutes of Health. test2treat.org, Provides free telehealth care and treatment to adults who test positive for COVID-19 or influenza. Even if you don't test positive, uninsured or underinsured adults can sign up to have a free test mailed to them. Medicare, Medicaid, or Medical. or in the Department of Veterans Affairs or Indian Health Service health care system.
Californians who are uninsured or have difficulty obtaining anti-COVID-19 medications. obtain Call (833) 686-5051 or visit us for a free COVID-19 telehealth appointment and medication. sesamecare.com/covidca Request a reservation. LA County residents can do the same by contacting the county's public health call center at (833) 540-0473. The call center is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but is closed on New Year's Day.
Doctors are also encouraging people to get new COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations this winter. Generally, if you haven't received a new vaccine for either virus since September, it's time to get a new vaccine.
Infants, pregnant women, and people over 60 years of age can also receive RSV vaccination.
People who have tested positive for coronavirus are isolate At least 5 days have passed since the onset of symptoms or the first positive test, whichever comes first. The day a person starts showing symptoms or the first positive test is considered day zero, and the earliest a patient can come out of isolation is by the end of day five.
According to Los Angeles County officials, infected people can end isolation after the fifth day if they have been fever-free for 24 hours without taking fever-reducing medication, have no other symptoms, or if their symptoms are mild and improving. That's what it means. of public health.
The agency strongly recommends obtaining a negative rapid test result before ending isolation between days 6 and 10. Isolation can usually end after the 10th day without requiring a negative test result, as long as the person does not yet have a fever.
A guide from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on how long to quarantine if you are exposed to COVID-19.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Infected people are recommended to wear a mask around others for a full 10 days after the onset of symptoms or the first positive test result. However, authorities said that even people who meet the criteria to end quarantine after the fifth day can stop wearing masks if they receive two consecutive negative test results at least one day apart. There is.
