As the sun beats down on the Golden State this July, the heat isn’t the only thing on the rise; COVID-19 cases are making an unwelcome comeback. While beaches and parks beckon the crowds, health officials are eyeing an unsettling trend: a potential summer surge. According to recent data from the San Francisco Chronicle, wastewater monitoring has unveiled that coronavirus is making its rounds again, with most tested sites displaying the virus’s unmistakable genetic signature.
The California Department of Public Health is signaling alarm bells as six out of nine testing sites in San Francisco report elevated virus levels in their wastewater, as SFGATE detailed. These findings have been echoed statewide, with WastewaterSCAN revealing that 95% of their tested sites in California show traces of the virus. This is particularly troubling given the uptick in social activities during the summer, from July 4 celebrations to indoor respite from the searing heat.
Public health officials are piecing together a picture of this summer’s virological landscape, spotting a dominant presence of the LP.8.1 variant in the mix. Yet, it’s the NB.1.8.1 variant, nicknamed “nimbus” by some for its association with severe sore throat symptoms, that’s turning heads despite accounting for only a smaller percentage of cases. Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told SFGATE, “We had hoped by now that COVID-19 would settle into a seasonal late fall/winter respiratory virus, but we get new surges when new variants of COVID-19 emerge.”…