SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County health experts are reminding people about ways to stay safe as COVID-19 cases increase nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 8,035 hospital admissions for the last week of July, which is a 12.1% jump compared to the previous week.
The Omicron sub-variant EG.5 is believed to be the prominent strain of COVID among infected individuals.
COVID-19 was declared no longer a pandemic in May, yet it remains an ongoing health issue for thousands of Americans.
San Antonio has seen a slow and steady uptick of COVID-19 cases, according to Metro Health spokesman David Alegria.
As of Tuesday, Bexar County saw 1,227 new COVID cases over seven days, according to the Metro Health dashboard.
“It is not unusual to see a summer surge. Metro Health reports, however, that case numbers are not as high compared to previous years. Although there is a steady increase, hospital admissions continue to be low in our community,” said Alegria in an emailed statement.
It is unclear why COVID cases are going up, but an increase in traveling and crowds gathering indoors could be some factors for the spread of the virus. This slight uptick is a reminder that COVID-19 is still in our community, and we should take preventive measures such as making sure we are up to date with our vaccinations.”
University Hospital has seen higher COVID test positivity rates among patients in recent weeks. Daily hospitalization rates for July averaged out to 12 inpatients. For the past two weeks, University Hospital has seen an average of 14 patients overnight daily.
“When they get tested for COVID they’re more often positive at this point and we have the numbers above 20%, which is pretty high. Fortunately, our numbers of people hospitalized with COVID remain very low,” said Dr. Jason Bowling, professor and infectious disease specialist at UT Health San Antonio and chief epidemiologist at University Health.
Dr. Bowling stressed the important for people to keep mindful about the impacts of COVID and how to keep protected, especially with school ramping up in San Antonio.
“Certainly, there’s going to be when people go back to school, we always see historically a bump in all respiratory infections frankly and so there’s a possibility that people are going to get exposed to COVID as we get back into school,” Bowling said. “If your child is sick, don’t have them go to school so that you can try to reduce the amount of spread to their classmates or co-workers if you’re going to work.”
Metro Health continues to offer free COVID-19 vaccines at pop-up clinics across the city. To learn more go here.