Marin COVID-19 count swells for summer

Marin’s COVID-19 indicators are on the rise, officials said this week.

“We’re seeing increased virus levels in wastewater, more outbreaks in long term care facilities and more folks in the hospital,” Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer, said on Monday.

“A lot of those illnesses that start off as ‘summer colds’ are actually COVID-19 these days,” Willis said.

The most recent wastewater surveillance report on July 2 showed a spike to 297.6 copies per milliliter of the virus DNA at all the county sites, according to the county’s Health and Human Services Department website. That was up from a low concentration of 50.1 virus DNA copies per milliliter on April 27, the chart showed.

On Friday, 11 people in Marin were hospitalized, up from eight on June 24, an increase of 30%, Willis said. In March and April, the hospitalizations were half that amount, Willis said.

“We’re closer now to the surge that we had in February,” Willis said.

The trend is evident around the state as well, health officials said.

“We’re clearly in a swell of cases now,” Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health said last month.

“Test positivity, that’s going way up, emergency department visits are up, hospitalizations are up,” Swartzberg said. “So all of that tells us that there’s an awful lot of COVID going on.”

According to Swartzberg, “This is the most significant time we’ve dealt with COVID since the winter surge, but compared to a year ago, we are in better shape,” he said.

Willis said COVID-19 appears to surge every summer and winter. That is different than other respiratory diseases such as flu and RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus — which tend to surge annually in the fall and winter.

“It may be too early to say if COVID is a seasonal illness,” Willis said. “If it is seasonal, then it seems to surge twice in winter and in summer.”

Willis is advising residents at higher risk for serious illness to get the current COVID-19 vaccine, if it’s been more than six months since their last shot. Those who are in that vulnerable category include everyone over age 60, he said.

“Some have asked if it’s better to wait for the new vaccine formulation we’re expecting for the fall,” Willis said. “But with the levels of transmission we’re seeing, it’s more important to have protection now, if you’re at risk for serious illness.”

The county is also advising people in the most vulnerable population to wear a mask if out of the home and in indoor public settings.

Willis is advising all residents to consider taking added precautions, such as updating virus test kits.

“For the general public, it’s still worth taking steps to prevent infection,” he said.

“COVID is not just like flu or a cold,” he added. “We know that repeated infections can increase risk of long COVID symptoms, for people in any age group.”

Most of the current strain of virus tracked in Marin are KP.2 and JN.1, according to the county website. This is a different virus version than a year earlier, but the new vaccine will be formulated to protect against the new dominant strains.

For more information, see coronavirus.marinhhs.org.

The Bay Area News Group contributed to this report.