With school getting out and temperatures rising, the number of people getting out and traveling is rising – and so is COVID-19.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department said it is seeing the start of what may be a summer surge.
The health department said wastewater monitoring shows a high concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in San Jose and medium-high levels in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale.
Officials said the elderly and those with respiratory or immune system problems should be the most concerned but acknowledged others should be, too.
"COVID even now causes more hospitalizations and deaths than flu," Santa Clara County assistant Public Health Officer Dr. Monika Roy said. "So everyone is familiar with flu. 'Oh, yeah. The flu, it comes around every year.' They’re not as worried about it. Knowing that it’s still causing more hospitalizations and deaths, I think is an important thing to keep in mind."
While the concentration levels in wastewater are fairly high, they’ve also remained consistent with no sudden upward trends in the past few weeks.
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