New cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are beginning to climb nationally and locally after holding steady or declining slightly for months.
The June 8 summary from the Georgia Department of Public Health reports the state has now topped two million total cases since the start of the pandemic. Between the report on June 1 and the update a week later, Georgia had nearly 14,900 new cases, 50 confirmed deaths and 569 hospitalizations.
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Dr. Cherie Drenzek, State Epidemiologist & Chief Science Office at the Georgia Department of Public Health, believes some of the uptick in numbers is due to new variants of the Omicron strain.
“As of this week, we’re already up to about 20%, nationally, of all cases are due to BA5 and BA4. So that’s new and in that case, that might be contributing to some of these surges in some areas,” she said, adding, “It’s just something for us to keep an eye on, as we’ve mentioned many times before, that these variants will come and will go and will and potentially can impact these numbers.”
Dr. Rodger MacArthur, infectious disease specialist at Augusta University Health, said he does not yet see any reason for concern, but still urges people to get vaccinated and boosted based on their age and underlying health issues.
“But with that said, I know a number of individuals who have been fully vaccinated with the two doses and then double boosted and they still have breakthrough cases,” he said, and new variants can impact efficacy. “It’s not a big surprise that the original vaccine doesn’t have such great, complete protection against SARS-CoV-2, but it does seem to be giving important protection against severe disease. Patients may not feel great for a couple of days, but no one I know who has been tested positive, at least at the student level, younger person level, or even faculty, have had to be hospitalized.”
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Currently, the CDC lists community levels in Richmond County and Columbia County as “low,” meaning residents should stay up to date with vaccines. The agency recommends wearing a mask while on public transportation. You can choose to wear a mask at other times to protect yourself and others.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control urges resident to monitor community spread levels in counties where they live and work.
“Part of treating COVID-19 as an endemic virus is recognizing that we need to know the current community level and the steps to take to stay virus-free,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC Director. “We are seeing more medium and high transmission across South Carolina, so we strongly encourage our residents to follow all recommendations, including masking, staying home when sick, and being vaccinated, including boosters when eligible, that will help bring these numbers back down.”
The Palmetto State has two counties with high transmission, Dillon and Marlboro counties. Berkeley, Charleston, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dorchester, Florence, Horry, Lexington, Marion, Orangeburg, Richland, Sumter, and Williamsburg counties have medium transmission. Aiken and Edgefield counties are both classified as low transmission.
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South Carolina has had more than 1.5 million cases reported since the beginning of the pandemic and 17,995 people have died.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 85.4 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since March 2020. The virus has claimed the lives of just over one million people in the United States.
Dr. MacArthur said, like any virus, COVID-19 will continue mutate, creating new variants just as the flu does each year. Although people are slowly learning how to live with SARS-CoV-2, MacArthur cautioned, ‘the virus is learning how to live with us; it does the virus no good evolutionarily to kill us off.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
