As students return to classrooms, public health officials are monitoring the increasing COVID-19 cases across the country. Hospital admissions due to the virus have been climbing, with a recent nationwide increase of 21%.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, predicts that the pattern will likely follow the trend observed last year. Cases and hospitalizations are expected to rise and then fall before surging again in late fall and early winter.
The potential rise in COVID-19 cases is not necessarily linked to school environments, but rather to the increased gathering of large groups indoors. Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center, acknowledges that increased indoor congregation with the change of weather could result in more cases and subsequent hospitalizations.
The dominant subvariant EG.5, informally referred to as Eris, does not appear to pose a greater threat than previous strains. Dr. Thomas Russo, a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York, reassures that it does not raise an increased level of concern or cause more severe disease.
An updated booster targeting the omicron variant is set to be released by the end of September, but it remains uncertain which age groups will be authorized to receive it immediately. Despite this, uptake of the vaccine among children and adults has been relatively low, with only a small percentage of children in the U.S. receiving the updated booster.
While COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise, they are not as high as when the omicron variant first hit. Experts attribute this to widespread prior infections, high vaccination rates among vulnerable populations, and improved treatment options.