COVID-19 keeps chugging along, not going away, not spiking, just rising a bit in some areas, and falling a bit in other places.
Jackson County’s seven-day average on Monday stood at 15, where it has been since June 8. The county has lost 99 people to the pandemic. Jackson has had 10,134 cases since the pandemic began in March, 2020. The county reported 103 cases for the week ending Sunday.
The county’s wastewater report for this week shows levels increasing slightly, said Anna Lippard of the Jackson County Department of Public Health.
According to the World Health Organization, global cases rose 2.93 percent for the week ending June 6, and deaths were up 5.56 percent.
After a fall to 97,661 on June 3, the U.S. seven-day average rose to 103,821 on June 12.
North Carolina numbers look similar. The state’s seven-day average fell from 4,155 for the week ending May 31 to 2,597 for the week ending June 6. For the week ending June 13, the seven-day stood at 3,780.
The two newest Omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5, are spreading rapidly in the country, now making up 8.3 and 13.3 percent of cases respectively for the week ending last Saturday. Like the previous variants following the Omicron spike, symptoms are mostly mild, like a bad cold or suffering allergies. Fatigue, congestion, cough and a runny nose are the most common symptoms.
BA2.121 is still the leading variant, with 64.2 percent of cases in the nation. BA.4 and BA.5 are more likely to re-infect those who have had COVID and/or have been vaccinated and boosted.
Headlines on the websites of several national publications this week read something along the lines of “You’re going to get COVID over and over again.”
The feeling among many health care professionals is that COVID is here to stay, hopefully becoming milder with each variant that emerges.
Pharmaceutical companies are working to combat the threat.
The three vaccines approved for use in the U.S. from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, were formulated to fight the alpha wave of COVID-19 and less likely to offer protection against up and coming variants. Vaccines based on the newer variants offer increased protection against newer strains than existing vaccines, and some are under development.
