COVID-19 levels have been rising in nearly all parts of the Bay Area over the past month, wastewater data shows.
While not as high as the winter surge, doctors said the increase is hitting earlier than in past years and is likely to continue climbing.
UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said the increase is hitting hospitals, too. He cautions those at high risk to take precautions.
"Over the last few months I have taken care of quite a few patients in the hospital," he said. "They tend to be older than 75 or very immune compromised. Pretty much everybody I've taken care of didn’t get the new shot."
Chin-Hong said extreme heat and summer celebrations are pushing more people inside. That coupled with a new, more contagious variant and a decrease in immunity six months after the winter spike are all partly to blame for the summer surge this year.
"We are kind of still in the middle of it," Chin-Hong said. "After the July Fourth, it was super hot, a lot of people went indoors. I'm expecting those numbers to continue to be high for a few more weeks, but I'm crossing my fingers that those numbers will also start going down sooner than they did last year."
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