Does it seem like a lot of people you know are sick?
You’re not alone. Respiratory illness season is in full swing in California and across much of the nation.
In Los Angeles County, about 23% of people participating in a weekly text-message-based survey reported having a cough or shortness of breath for the week that ended Dec. 10, higher than the total reported during a late summer peak in respiratory illnesses, when 21% said they had those symptoms. Early summer brought a lull, with only 10% of survey respondents saying they had a cough or shortness of breath.
Meanwhile, coronavirus levels in wastewater in L.A. County are at their highest since summer. Statewide, the level of flu-like illness — which includes non-flu viruses such as the coronavirus — is considered high, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationally, COVID-19 remains the primary cause of new respiratory hospitalizations and deaths, resulting in about 1,000 fatalities a week.
Here’s a look at the latest public health data and what you can do:
COVID-19
Coronavirus levels in Los Angeles County’s sewage were at 39% of last winter’s peak — the region’s last major spike — according to data for the week ending Dec. 9, the most recent available.
The rate at which coronavirus tests are coming back positive also continues to rise. About 11% of specimens tested at sentinel surveillance labs in L.A. County were positive for the week that ended Dec. 16, up from 10% the week prior.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, coronavirus levels in the largest sewershed in Santa Clara County have reached their highest point since last winter’s peak, at 72%, according to the local public health department.
And across California, new weekly coronavirus-positive hospital admissions are at their highest levels since last winter. For the week ending Dec. 16, there were 2,924 new coronavirus-positive hospital admissions, up nearly 50% from a month earlier, according to data posted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This season has not — at this point — eclipsed last year’s COVID-19 levels in terms of the number of weekly hospitalizations. And doctors in Los Angeles County say they’re not seeing COVID-19 patients inundating intensive care units, although urgent care clinics are quite busy.
Still, some parts of California are being hit harder than others. Fresno County’s Department of Public Health says its hospitals are seeing a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses and are reporting “severely impacted conditions … due to a historic number of admitted patients and people accessing the emergency department with non-urgent medical problems.”
The Sacramento area and the Eastern Sierra are now at the “medium” level of coronavirus-positive hospital admissions, according to the CDC, while the rest of California’s counties are in the “low” level.
Flu
Flu cases also continue to rise in California. According to the state Department of Public Health, there were 1,007 new flu hospital admissions for the week that ended Dec. 9, up 20% over the prior week.
The latest flu hospitalization level is about one-third the peak of last winter’s.
In Los Angeles County, about 18% of specimens tested at sentinel surveillance labs came back positive for the flu, compared with 14% from the previous week.
RSV and other viruses
Respiratory syncytial virus can cause severe illness and death in babies and older people. RSV has plateaued at a relatively high rate in L.A. County. For the week that ended Dec. 16, about 12.3% of specimens tested at surveillance labs came back positive for RSV, about the same as the prior week’s reading of 12.5%.
The test positive rate for RSV in L.A. County has been mostly between 12% to 13% since early November, with a one-week peak that reached 15%. That represents a particularly active RSV season.
Since the 2017–18 season, there have been just two other seasons where the RSV test positive rate has been higher: last year’s terrible season, which plateaued at a peak rate of about 20%, and the 2018–19 season, which leveled off at a maximum of about 15%.
There are other viruses also causing illness, including rhinoviruses and enteroviruses. Most people who get these viruses develop a common cold. In Los Angeles County, 15% of surveillance-lab-tested specimens are coming back positive for rhinoviruses or enteroviruses.
Emergency rooms
In Los Angeles County, for the week that ended Dec. 17, about 5% of emergency room visits were classified as related to the coronavirus, just enough to warrant a medium level of concern.
That’s not as bad as it was last year at this time, when roughly 13% of emergency room visits were classified as related to the coronavirus.
What you can do
Doctors believe more people became infected with respiratory viruses over the Christmas holiday. They urge people to stay at home if they’re feeling ill and to get tested. Those who are not ill should strive to avoid contact with those who are.
Wearing a mask can help sick people avoid spreading respiratory viruses to others and lower the risk of healthy people getting sick.
Many people who test positive for the coronavirus or the flu are eligible for antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid for COVID-19 and Tamiflu for the flu. The medications can reduce the severity of illness.
Doctors are also urging people to get a fresh vaccination for COVID-19 and flu this winter. Generally speaking, if you haven’t gotten a new vaccination for either virus since September, it’s time for a new one.
RSV immunizations are also available for babies, those who are pregnant and people who are age 60 and older.
People who test positive for the coronavirus should isolate for at least five days following the onset of symptoms or their first positive test result, whichever comes first. The day a person starts having symptoms or had their first positive test is considered Day Zero, and the earliest a patient can exit isolation is by the end of Day 5.
Infected people can end isolation after Day 5 if they have been free of fever for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medications and if they don’t have any other symptoms, or if their symptoms are mild and improving, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
The agency strongly recommends people get a negative rapid test result before ending isolation between Days 6 and 10. Isolation can generally end after Day 10 without needing a negative test result, unless you still have a fever.
Infected people are encouraged to wear a mask around others for a full 10-day period following the onset of symptoms or their first positive test result. But the agency says that people who meet the criteria to end isolation after Day 5 can stop wearing a mask, too, if they have two consecutive negative coronavirus test results taken at least one day apart.
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