SAN ANTONIO – It may feel a bit like deja vu. COVID-19 cases are rising across the country, especially in many northeastern states.
The uptick in cases are leading to questions about reinstating mask mandates and another wave of infections.
“I just want to point out that this virus is still not done with us,” said Dr. Anita Kurian, Asst. Director of San Antonio Metro Health.
Kurian said community-wide risk level and hospitalizations remain low in our area, but Metro Health is still seeing on average about 65 to 70 new cases every day.
“We’ve been at this low-risk level. We’ve had that positivity rate less than 1.5% in the past, and then we have seen things take a turn for the worse,” Kurian said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the primary cause of this uptick in cases nationally is the BA.2 omicron subvariant, which is now the dominant strain of COVID-19.
“It’s estimated at this time about 86% of the newly sequenced cases are BA.2,” Kurian said. “It may not cause more severe infections than your omicron variant in the past, but it seems to be spreading a little bit more faster.”
As this new subvariant spreads, Metro Health is advising people to stay vigilant, get tested either at home or at a clinic if they are exposed or showing COVID-19 symptoms, and most important, get vaccinated if they haven’t already or get a booster shot.
“Approximately 93% of our vaccine eligible residents, which is five years and older, have received at least one dose, and approximately 76% are fully vaccinated this time,” Kurian said. “Booster vaccines improve your risk of not contracting infections in hospitals or in hospitalizations, the risk for hospitalizations and deaths as well.”
While some East Coast cities and large universities have reinstated indoor mask mandates in public areas, Kurian said Metro Health is cautiously optimistic about San Antonio’s outlook, but not relaxing recommendations.
“We are watching a regional rate of those COVID 19 community-wide risk levels on a weekly basis. We are keeping a close eye on all those risk metrics that goes into this calculations,” Kurian said. “Once we see those indicators move up into orange or high levels, we may have to rethink our strategies.”