TAMPA, Fla. — Health officials believe COVID-19 spread is likely following the Labor Day holiday weekend.
“All indications are that it’s going up,” said virologist and USF Health associate professor Dr. Michael Teng.
Experts said the problem is we just don’t have enough surveillance right now to know exactly how many cases are rising since people either aren’t testing for COVID-19 or they’re doing it at home and not reporting it.
“What we’re seeing from the surveillance systems that we do have is that wastewater surveillance is going up,” said Dr. Teng.
“We are capturing the data from the hospitalizations from the deaths, from people that do seek healthcare,” said Dr. Jill Roberts, associate professor for the USF College of Public Health.
The CDC reports hospitalizations have gone up 18.8% in the most recent week of data.
With Labor Day gatherings and travel, experts said they expect to see another spike in cases within the coming weeks.
“I would say anytime you introduce lots of people gathering together and travel, you increase your risk for COVID, and so I think that people should keep that in mind,” said Roberts.
“Not just Labor Day, but I think the fact of the matter is we’re not taking as many precautions as we did previously among the different waves. So there’s very little masking, there’s very little distancing,” said Teng.
Researchers are tracking recent variants like EG.5 and FL.1.5.1, which are currently dominating transmission in the United States.
“Don’t sleep on COVID. We’re looking at a couple of variants coming out right now. This one variant took off real fast. There’s another variant of interest that people are watching because it’s got a significant number of mutations on it,” said Roberts.
That’s the latest variant, BA.2.86. It’s spread to multiple countries now, including the US.
Scientists are keeping a close eye on it because it has so many different mutations. Early reports show it may be less contagious than others.
However, experts said now is the time to take some extra precautions as the virus likely spreads following this Labor Day holiday.
“If you start to get that feeling that a lot of people around you are sick, it might be a good idea to keep those tests available and actually pull those masks back out if necessary,” said Roberts.
US researchers are expected to release more data about BA.2.86 soon.