The last weekend of summer travel will likely cause a large uptick in COVID-19 cases across California and other popular tourist destinations in the country.
Throughout the summer, travel and get-togethers have been the most significant cause of the spread of the virus. The Democratic National Convention, which ended last week in Chicago, was the cause of at least a dozen policy makers, delegates, and news reporters testing positive for the illness.
Testing Covid With Constant Travel
For the past few years, domestic and international travel seems to have reached pre-pandemic levels, with many people feeling like they missed precious opportunities to make up for lost time over the last four years.
Tracy Austin, a Democratic strategist who caught the virus while attending the conversion, said, “It was an amazing time, but the DNCC last week stood for the Democratic National COVID Convention.”
Health Professionals Are Worried
The next big test for the COVID-19 virus will be the last travel weekend of the year. Doctors will be watching closely to see if Labor Day weekend activities cause a large uptick in back-to-school cases right around the corner.
Last week, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said some data suggested a slow progression of the coronavirus infection across the country. However, a dip in the summer surge won’t be noticeable until several weeks of declines have been reported.
Increase in Travel
After several long summers of lockdowns and postponed plans, people have taken back their lives and enjoyed travel once again, this year with even higher levels than normal.
The Transportation Security Administration said that June 23 had the most passengers screened in a single day since the agency’s creation. A whopping 2.99 million people screened through TSA in a single day.
Indoor Events Are Still Risky
Even though the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus pandemic over, the illness continues to spread indoors and at large gatherings.
The number of viral transmissions at the DNC shows that the most significant risk for infection remains in big indoor gatherings. “That’s going to happen any time nearly 25,000 people are packed into an arena, in hotels, and on shuttle buses for four days, no matter what the occasion is,” said California Democratic Party spokesperson Robin Swanson.
Mask Usage Can Still Protect
Many people found using masks to be cumbersome and tiring. Several states, including New York and North Carolina, have banned public mask usage to protect public spaces from bad-faith actors in the past few months.
Despite the change in feelings toward masks, they can still be one of the best ways to prevent an illness from spreading at an indoor event.
Doctors Share Their Feelings on the DNC
Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, a regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California, recounted watching people packed together at the DNC and noted that “hardly anyone is wearing a mask.”
She also said that she knew a large amount of cases would be ascribed to the event. “You get a lot of people together in an indoor area who are talking and laughing and shouting, which is actually a more efficient way to spread COVID,” Hudson said. “Between all of that … exposure time, definitely, we are certainly going to see COVID.”
Preventing Further COVID Outbreaks
Dr. Hudson still recommends mask usage when attending a large indoor gathering or traveling for extended periods.
“When you are traveling, if you’re going to be in an indoor area with an awful lot of people, to really reduce your your risk of becoming COVID-positive, you really should be wearing a mask. If you’re on a plane, if you’re in an airport, those are the times you really want to make sure that you are wearing a mask,” she added.
Covid-19 Vaccinations
Updated COVID-19 vaccinations for the upcoming 2024-25 flu season will become available sometime this week.
The vaccines will also be in most pharmacies by September for anyone wanting to protect themselves from COVID or the yearly flu.
Strong Summer Wave
There are several reasons why COVID cases have taken over, such as being exceptionally strong this summer.
One reason is the emergence of successive hyper infectious coronavirus subvariants; this means that multiple strains of COVID managed to mutate together to create one strong strain.
Super Strains Are Stronger Than Usual
Hudson shared that the current hyper infectious subvariant is “a little different than what people had seen with either natural immunity or with the vaccinations that we had available.”
“Because of that, it just made it much more easy to come into a population where people’s natural and vaccine-induced immunity was at a nadir,” with many people having had their last COVID vaccine more than a year ago.
COVID Is Growing Around the Country
According to the CDC, 26 states currently have COVID-19 cases that are protected as “growing” or “likely-growing.” However, this number is actually down from 44 states just six weeks ago.
As of the end of August, California has seen their positive tests come back at a sharp rise at 14.4%. The current peak is even higher than last winter, which is when the cases normally begin to rise.
