California COVID-19 hospitalizations climb as new variants drive increase in cases
Over the past five weeks, California’s COVID-19 positivity rate has doubled to 16.7% from 8.3%, according to figures reported Friday by the California Department of Public Health.
Earlier this year, when cases of COVID-19 soared to record levels, the department reported that the positivity rate peaked near 26% statewide.
The state’s case rates also are on the rise: For every 100,000 Californians, 41.3 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Friday. The figure stood at 34.6 per 100,000 five weeks ago.
In California, 4,009 people are hospitalized with the disease, 445 of them in intensive care units, the state health department reported.
That’s a 66% increase in hospitalizations from five weeks ago when the agency said 2,415 people were getting hospital care for COVID-19, including 276 in the ICU’s. In Friday’s update, public health officials noted that 2,112 ICU beds remained available.
The public health department and infectious disease experts worldwide are tracking a number of COVID-19 subvariants that they feel are more contagious, are likely to cause more severe disease, and are better at eluding current vaccines than the original new coronavirus.
In particular, two omicron subvariants — the BA.4 and BA.5 strains originally found in South Africa earlier this year — are increasingly being found in California, with July 2 data showing the number of cases of BA.5 rising by 51.9% and BA.4 by 16.5% over the prior week, the state health department reported.
A new study out of Columbia University, published in the Nature”journal, reported that the BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants are more than four times as resistant to vaccines as omicron’s initial descendant, BA.2, meaning break-through cases are on the rise. So far, these subvariants have not shown signs of causing more severe cases of COVID-19 than their predecessors, state health department officials said.
The World Health Organization is also monitoring the BA.2.75 omicron variant, initially detected in India and known as centaurus, to determine whether it could pose trouble. The variant has only recently begun to surface in California.
In the Sacramento area, state records showed that Yolo County reported the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate at 9.5%. It stood at 15.8% in El Dorado County, 16% in Sacramento County and 18.6% in Placer County.
El Dorado County reported 27.1 cases per 100,000; Placer County, 28.3 per 100,000; Sacramento County, 36.6 per 100,000; and Yolo County, 44.6 per 100,000.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention ranks all four counties among areas in the nation where community spread of COVID-19 is at “high” levels. The two other CDC designations are low and medium. Much of California falls into the CDC high designation while states such as New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania so far remain at low levels of transmission.
Questions about new antiviral drug
The disease is finding many potential hosts in which to reside and potentially mutate, and researchers recently reported that some strains of the SARS-CoV-2 could resist a key antiviral drug called Paxlovid.
One of the scientists, Jun Wang, an associate professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, said this could pose a real setback in treatment.
“Our findings show that doctors should reserve Paxlovid for the highest risk patients, the ones who need it most,” he said, “because if Paxlovid is widely used, it will mostly destroy the variants it can treat, and the variants it cannot treat will become dominant. If that happens, we will be right back where we started, with no treatment for the disease.”
Still, on Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid, saying it would ensure equitable access to the drug for the many U.S. residents who might not have access to a primary care physician.
“The FDA recognizes the important role pharmacists have played and continue to play in combating this pandemic,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director for the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Since Paxlovid must be taken within five days after symptoms begin, authorizing state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid could expand access to timely treatment for some patients who are eligible to receive this drug for the treatment of COVID-19.”
Check with doctors about COVID treatment
Both the American Medical Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America applauded the FDA decision. The FDA recommended that patients seek advice from their physician or go to a site that offers testing-to-treatment options.
Infectious disease experts also recommended patients see their physicians before seeking out a pharmacists but expressed support for the FDA move.
“Despite their wide availability, Paxlovid ... and other outpatient COVID-19 therapies have been underutilized in the United States,” said Dr. Daniel P. McQuillen, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “Moreover, recent data show people who may be most in need of antiviral treatment for COVID-19, including Paxlovid, may not be receiving it because of where they live. Barriers to treatments are particularly steep for many people of color and individuals with lower incomes who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and who live in underserved communities with fewer health care providers.”
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the CDC recommends getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, covering coughs and sneezes, washing your hands frequently, disinfecting high-touch areas regularly, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, staying six feet away from others, monitoring your health, and testing if you suspect you or a loved one has the virus.
