Australian health officials are changing the recommendations to reduce the definition of COVID immunity, say they're seeing reinfections happen faster and more frequently with BA.5 and BA.4. Both strains make up more than 80% of new cases in the U.S.
Doctors say omicron BA.5 subvariant is causing more severe COVID infections for many, including reinfections with "more painful" symptoms.
"We're probably seeing just a drop in the bucket in terms of official cases," said UCSF Infectious Disease Physician, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong."It's already here," said Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County's Health Officer."We've seen it. We've seen a bump in our cases, 10 to 15%, about 30 per day more over the past week than we did prior."
Every Bay Area county is reporting an increase in hospitalizations, but the uptick is not currently overwhelming hospital systems. The areas reporting a steady increase in new hospital admissions over the past week include: Marin, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Solano counties. But thankfully, these counties aren't seeing any major impacts to ICU admissions."So the good news, while BA.4 and BA.
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