Coronavirus

Doctors say Santa Clara County could see COVID surge peak in late June

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Doctors say Santa Clara Co. could see COVID surge peak soon

Almost as quickly as the last surge ended, the newest wave of COVID drove case rates and hospitalizations up in the San Jose, but not for much longer.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Almost as quickly as our last surge ended, the newest wave of COVID-19 drove case rates and hospitalizations up. But, there may be an end in sight.

Bay Area doctors say one model indicates the peak of the surge could come at the end of this month.

As students wrap up school for the summer and the community in Santa Clara County plans their vacations, there's still one thing you have to account for - COVID-19.

"Currently we are in a COVID surge and we're at quite high levels," Santa Clara County assistant health officer Dr. Vit Kraushaar said.

A quick look at the county's data dashboards would show you cases and sewer shed data have bounced up and down in the past few weeks.

But based on at least one model, Dr. Kraushaar says that surge could start to calm soon.

"One of the models we look at created by U.C. Berkeley shows that cases could peak towards the end of June," Dr. Kraushaar said.

"The rate of increase is somewhat stabilized for California in general," UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said.

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It's good news, but not reason to relax according to experts.

Dr. Chin-Hong says the BA4 and BA5 omicron subvariants found in Santa Clara County are extending the current surge and spreading rapidly.

"It's increasing the fastest of any variant in the United States, particularly in the Midwest, even though BA.2.12.1 is the most dominant," Dr. Chin-Hong said.

It's the exact reason Santa Clara County is being very cautious despite their model.

Dr. Kraushaar says the county is still stressing the importance of masking, boosting and other protections.

If we do that, doctors say we may have an enjoyable summer after all.

"The fact that hospitalizations have crested in one part of the country and are going down and the fact that deaths have stabilized even in that in that area suggests hopefully we're in for a lull period of time," Dr. Chin-Hong said.

This news mixed with a new booster rollout for children and a booster plan that aims to better fight omicron subvariants gives hope for Dr. Chin-Hong.

He says others should see the silver-lining as well.

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