In case you thought COVID was a factor of the previous, this summer time’s surge ought to make you suppose twice. The entire Bay Space appears to be coming down with the virus today.Native knowledge signifies the virus is spreading at excessive ranges in San Jose and most communities across the Bay Space and California. However regardless of close to record-high COVID ranges in wastewater and spiking positivity charges, different metrics present lots has modified and ensure the virus will not be almost as lethal because it as soon as was earlier than vaccines and coverings turned broadly obtainable.Wastewater knowledge for San Jose reveals the virus almost reached report excessive ranges within the metropolis’s sewer shed this week. It was quick by lower than one tenth of a %. The earlier report excessive was set through the first Omicron surge in January of 2022. Santa Clara County’s three different sewer sheds — Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Gilroy — all have excessive ranges of COVID, too, as of the primary few days of July.Within the East Bay, COVID ranges are additionally rising as extra folks contract the virus. Alameda County public well being officers stated this week that wastewater confirmed an uptick within the virus and urged folks to take precautions.Statewide, the COVID positivity price, which means the portion of COVID assessments that come again constructive, started spiking in June. On June 1, the positivity price was 4.1%. It had greater than doubled to 10.6% as of July 1, in accordance with knowledge launched Friday. The state is now lower than one proportion level from the extent it was throughout this winter’s COVID spike, when it reached simply over 11%.The wastewater knowledge reveals what docs and well being care professionals are seeing every day.“We’re clearly in a swell of circumstances now,” stated Dr. John Swartzberg, medical professor emeritus of infectious ailments and vaccinology at UC Berkeley’s College of Public Well being. “Take a look at positivity, that’s going approach up, emergency division visits are up, hospitalizations are up. So all of that tells us that there’s an terrible lot of COVID happening.”“That is probably the most vital time we’ve handled COVID because the winter surge, however in comparison with a yr in the past, we’re in higher form,” he stated.Whereas the risk for most individuals has change into negligible, Swartzberg worries about these most in danger.“The message that I’d prefer to get out to the general public is there’s an terrible lot of COVID circulating,” he stated. “In case you’re at excessive threat, you might want to take precautions.”That features getting vaccinated, in the event you haven’t had a shot just lately.That tracks with what Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco professor of drugs who focuses on infectious ailments, has seen at his hospital just lately.“The information has been constant for the final yr or so. The folks within the hospital, usually, are older than 75 or very immune compromised,” he stated.They usually have one thing else in widespread: “No person that I’ve seen received the vaccine because it got here out within the fall.”A healthcare employee locations answer droplets right into a fast antigen Covid-19 check at a Reliant Well being Companies testing web site in Hawthorne, California on January 18, 2022. (Picture by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Picture by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP through Getty Photos) A newly formulated vaccine was launched final fall, and people at excessive threat can and may get a booster in between the brand new annual photographs, Swartzberg stated. It’s not too late to get boosted this summer time, if you’re excessive threat, and you’ll nonetheless be eligible for a brand new shot within the fall.The now annual re-formulation of the COVID vaccine is anticipated in August or September, and will probably be primarily based on one of many more moderen FLiRT variants, after some forwards and backwards between FDA and its vaccine advisory committee.Whereas those that are at excessive threat may select to take precautions throughout this summer time’s surge, there are some reassuring metrics that present COVID now could be a distinct beast than COVID through the early days of the pandemic in 2020.“If we had seen this quantity of COVID wastewater in 2020, our hospitals can be bursting on the seams,” stated Chin-Hong. “The truth that we’re seeing a lot within the wastewater and only a modest enhance in hospitalizations is because of the truth that the inhabitants, on the whole, is far more immune than in earlier years.”And whereas deaths have elevated barely previously a number of weeks, COVID is accountable for solely about 1% of deaths in California as of late June, the latest obtainable knowledge. That’s nonetheless a lot decrease than the three.5% in January of this yr through the winter surge and approach under January 2021, the primary winter surge, when 40% of all deaths in California had been on account of COVID.Earlier than this summer time surge, the % of deaths on account of COVID had reached new lows, staying properly below 1% since March of this yr, the bottom it has been constantly because the begin of the pandemic.“I believe the factor that individuals are lacking proper now could be that it’s straightforward to get COVID,” stated Swartzberg, who has began eating exterior and utilizing masks indoors extra typically. “It’s nearly an ideal storm of extremely transmissible variants, a inhabitants that isn’t taking precautions and waning immunity.”