Dr. Ruth's Newsletter for 9/23/23

Here's the latest issue of COVID News and More by Dr Ruth Ann Crystal.  As always, she always has a lot of helpful information, and if you are COVID-cautious, you'll appreciate it.  

Here's just some of it:

"COVID hospitalizations have continued to rise over the last 10 weeks, with an increase of 7.7% this week. However, Emergency Department (ED) visits for COVID decreased by 19% over the last week when looking at the entire United States. Overall, respiratory illness seen in the ED has continued to be mostly for COVID infections, although there is a slight increase in influenza. In the southeastern United States, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) season has started. Also in the Southeast, SARS-CoV-2 levels have started to decrease in wastewater, although viral levels continue to increase in the rest of the U.S. and especially in the Northeast. Here in California, San Francisco Oceanside has had a huge jump in virus levels in wastewater in the last 2 days, followed by high levels in Hollister, Lompoc and Pacifica.

"Variants EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 continue to dominate, but HV.1 and some FLip mutations are starting to increase as well and may have a growth advantage. Per Federico Guele, the FLip mutations have a much faster doubling time. FLip variants have a double mutation in the spike (F456L and L455F).  “Watch out for HK.3, EG.5.1.3 and XBB.1.16.6, all of which contain this FLip that are on the move in the US.” Although many variants are neutralized by antibodies from the fall XBB.1.5 COVID vaccines, the FLip mutations are not. Shan-Lu Liu, however, noted that the monoclonal antibody S309 can neutralize FLip variants."

 

Also, check out the Walgreen's COVID-19 Index COVID-19 Positivity Tracker.