United States: According to recent reports, New York is experiencing a massive jump in COVID cases driven by the so-called FLiRT variants.
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The data from New York officials stated that there were 687 cases of COVID reported per day on June 22, which was almost a 250 percent jump from the total number reported two months ago.
During the same week, on average, 53 hospitalizations were reported each day for COVID-related infections, in which older people were mostly involved, including one case of death.
Easing down of COVID preventive measures
Although mandatory COVID preventive measures have largely been removed, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also eased its recommendation for when people should isolate themselves during sickness and the post-sickness phase, as gothamist.com reported.
Moreover, the reduction in COVID testing does not entirely show the complete picture, as per the health experts.
However, as per the New York state wastewater testing data, the tests show a bump in COVID, as seen last summer.
COVID is following predictable pattern – Experts
As the experts state COVID has started to follow a predictable path, which shows that its case rises during winters when temperature drops and people keep themselves indoors, however, this bump is seen to be smaller during summer.
According to Dr. Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist and professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, in the summer, “there are family gatherings, there are weddings,” as gothamist.com reported.
And as people would spend most of their time outdoors, the virus appears to be less likely to spread. And “we also spend time indoors when we have a heat wave like we had last week,” as Justman noted.
FLiRT variant spread
Most people have developed some immunity against the virus, either through inoculation or infections in the past.
However, as FLiRT variants could even pass through that immunity, the presence of some form of antibodies helps to make the symptoms milder, as noted by Andrew Pekosz, working at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which researches respiratory viruses.
Justman said, “Overall, disease severity is dropping,” as gothamist.com reported,
Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of the medicine department and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassa, also noted the current state of circulating COVID cases.
Glatt notes that while taking into consideration COVID patients, “It’s the typical COVID presentations,” and “They have a cough. They may have some upper respiratory symptoms like a cold, runny nose.”