Rise in Omicron subvariant BA.2 cases coinciding with beginning of allergy season
NEW YORK -- It's starting to happen all over again. COVID-19 cases are climbing in the United Kingdom and health officials in the U.S. are concerned that the numbers here could soon follow.
The U.K. increase seems to be partly due to a quick-spreading Omicron subvariant dubbed BA.2, and CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported Monday this is happening just as allergy season is getting underway.
We're concerned about allergy season because some early symptoms of COVID resemble allergies -- runny or stuffy nose, sometimes pink eye, or a cough and fatigue. If anti-COVID meds are going to be effective, they need to be taken within 48 to 72 hours of symptom onset. That's not enough time to wait out your allergies. Your best bet is to take at least one rapid COVID test to distinguish between the virus and pollen allergies.
A bigger concern is what to do about the rising COVID case numbers in the U.K. Daily case counts there have more than doubled and hospitalizations are on the upswing. Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. case count could also rebound somewhat in a few weeks.
According to Dr. Thomas Balcezak of Yale-New Haven Health System, that could be primarily due to, "Immunity may be waning from either previous infections or vaccines. The second is as restrictions are relaxed, including mask mandates, it may expose more people, and third is, perhaps, there is just something intrinsic about BA.2 that allows it to spread more easily."
While Balcezak says case numbers across the U.S. are as low as last July, the Center for Disease Control's Wastewater Surveillance System has seen an uptick in viral activity at sites around the country.
The good news is, "The vaccines continue to be the most effective prevention against serious illness or death, and they work with Omicron, BA.1 or BA.2, and they do still have the ability to protect you," Balcezak said.
Ultimately, the impact of the BA.2 Omicron variant, or any others yet to come, will depend in part on how effective existing immunity turns out to be, and how long it lasts after someone has been vaccinated, boosted, or recovered from infection.