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If you feel like many other people you know are getting COVID-19 again. . . You’re not alone.
Driven by a new subvariant called JN. 1, COVID-19 rates are rising sharply in early 2024, as part of a sharp increase that began in November.
So what do you want to know about the symptoms of JN. 1?Is there an updated incubation era for COVID-19 in 2024?Where can you find a COVID-19 free check now?Read on for everything you want to know or jump straight to:
And remember, the new COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, and most recently Novavax, are available in California. The new shots are free to everyone, with or without health insurance, and are formulated to target strains like these latest subvariants. Find out where to locate the new COVID-19 vaccine near you.
Currently, JN. 1 is the most prevalent subvariant of COVID-19 in the United States, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates currently accounts for about 62% of cases nationwide. Behind it is the old main variant, HV. 1, which now accounts for 14. 8% of cases nationally.
(If you lose track of all those subvariants of the omicron variant at this point in the pandemic, that’s understandable. In short: the surge in COVID-19 cases in the summer of 2023 driven by EG. 5, informally referred to as “Eris. “”through some online, such as XBB. 1. 16 before it was nicknamed “Arcturus” – even though the World Health Organization has revised its naming conventions to reserve “Greek labels” only for “variants of concern”. 1 has gained national notoriety, now followed by JN. 1. )
While HV. 1 was part of the XBB sublineage of the omicron variant, JN. 1 is very similar to the BA. 2. 86 strain, the CDC said in a statement flagging JN. 1 as “an attractive variant” in December. When dealing with descendants like JN. 1 and HV. 1 earlier, it’s important to remember that each new subvariant is more easily transmitted, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF.
“Whenever something goes up the ‘COVID tree of life’ rankings, it will have to have had a superpower that makes it more resilient than others,” Chin-Hong said. “And that superpower is usually transmissibility. “
The contagious nature of JN. 1 means that “strategies that other people might use to escape infection over the summer, when we arrive, are probably working right now,” Chin-Hong said, in addition to the fact that winter holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s have incentivized travel and brought many other people together in crowded gatherings. All of this means that “we all come in combination, we combine the dangers from across the country [and] we don’t have much to do with it. It’s time to recover before we are disclosed and we disclose to others,” Chin-Hong said.
Aside from its contagious nature, the CDC said in its Dec. 8 report that “there is no evidence that JN. 1 poses a greater threat to public health compared to other variants recently in circulation” and “no indication of increased JN severity. “1 this time. “
But, Chin-Hong noted, JN. 1’s increased transmissibility still means that “more people will get infected, which means our hospitals will be more crowded, restricting our ability to care for those suffering from other diseases. “”
Chin-Hong confirms that no unexpected wildcard symptoms have yet been reported for JN. 1, or HV. 1 before; those are the same COVID-19 symptoms you’re used to hearing with past variants. Or at least, that’s what it looks like right now.
“As with other flavors of omicron,” Chin-Hong said, “many [cases] start with a sore throat,” followed by congestion and a dry cough. From there, “the other symptoms — headache, runny nose, muscle aches, diarrhea or abdominal pain, fever, loss of smell — can also go up,” he said.
“The characteristics of the inflamed user can also shape the symptoms that reveal themselves,” Chin-Hong said, noting that a user over 75 or an immunocompromised user who has not received the new COVID-19 vaccine “can delight in a lack of vaccine. “breathing or difficulty breathing.
According to the CDC, here is the full list of imaginable COVID-19 symptoms:
Remember, you may have a combination of those symptoms or just one. They can be mild or more severe. But if you experience any of those symptoms, get checked for COVID-19 (more on this below).
“COVID cases,” i. e. , the effects of positive tests, are no longer tracked as they once were. You will be informed more about this below, but in the absence of up-to-date and widespread knowledge about the effects of positive COVID-19 controls, it is increasingly vital to monitor the presence of the coronavirus in human wastewater to assess the degrees of spread of COVID-19 in a specific field.
Stanford University’s WastewaterSCAN task monitors the presence of COVID-19, as well as other viruses, in wastewater across the United States (for example, you can see the concentration of COVID-19 in wastewater collected in San Francisco’s Oceanside Basin).
And when it comes to COVID-19 in Bay Area wastewater, after the numbers dropped after that summer swell, Ali Boehm of WastewaterSCAN emailed KQED on Jan. 8 saying COVID-19 degrees are unfortunately “high and rising” right now. In the chart below, which shows an aggregate trend line of wastewater treatment sites in the Bay Area, you can see how the existing accumulation compares to the highest visible peak, which is the initial increase in omimicrons in the winter of 2021-22.
As with other viruses that are breathed in in winter, RSV degrees in Bay Area wastewater “are still high and obviously haven’t started to decline,” Boehm said. Good news: Boehm said local wastewater shows that the flu “is no longer circulating now as it was around this time last year. ” Learn more about the other symptoms of RSV and the flu as they relate to COVID-19.
Across the state, COVID-19 measures have also been increased again after a pause. The state’s 7-day COVID-19 Positivity Check Rate tracks the average percentage of other people in California who test positive from a diagnostic test from a lab after taking a PCR check. The statewide positivity rate hit its highest point of the entire year on Sept. 2, at 17. 4%.
But after falling to a low of 6. 1% on Nov. 3, the average weekly positivity rate climbed back up to 12. 3% based on the maximum recent knowledge available, collected on Jan. 1. COVID-19 in 2023 is being monitored at home with an antigen verification kit, a PCR check, so this tracking by the California Department of Public Health does not constitute the full picture of COVID-19 positivity in the state. )
After a pause after the summer 2023 wave, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in California began to rise again in November and peaked on Dec. 22 with a 7-day average of 2,339 people hospitalized statewide. Available data, from December 31, show a decrease to a 7-day average of 1,990 patients.
Why don’t we have more accurate numbers on the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 right now?Early in the pandemic, most people received PCR diagnostic tests through official websites, which then tracked their lab treatment and reported numbers, in the same way that the positivity rate of official state checks is still tracked.
However, the advent of the widespread antigen test has now allowed more people to self-monitor for COVID-19 at home without having to find a PCR test (albeit in a different way than how a PCR test “detects” the virus). Although governments have suggested that other people carry out internal checks to report the positive effects to their local health authorities, very few people still do so.
All of this partly explains why the “real” number of people with COVID-19 recently in 2023 is a very difficult number to report, and why any official PCR test figure almost represents a significantly undercount.
Yes: The new COVID-19 vaccine now available in California is formulated to target the XBB sublineage, from which HV. 1 is descended. And that same vaccine “is still effective unlike JN. 1,” Chin-Hong said. , although the latter subvariant has more than “30 more mutations than XBB. 1. 5, on which the vaccine is based”.
Step 1: Know the updated incubation times for JN. 1
If you’ve heard that incubation times for the virus are getting shorter and shorter, i. e. , the time between exposure to COVID-19 and a positive COVID-19 test, that’s true. People are testing positive for COVID-19 faster than they were in 2020, when the average incubation was five days, as the incubation period has been replaced with each new variant, Chin-Hong confirms.
While we “don’t have a lot” of up-to-date data on incubation times at this point in the pandemic, Chin-Hong notes, given this general trend, it makes sense to get tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible. as possible. two days after exposure if you already have symptoms. But there’s an update for 2024. . .
Step 2: Don’t rely on a negative COVID-19 early test
If your first check is negative, you will definitely need to do another check the next day if symptoms persist, and again if the result is still negative.
Here’s why a negative COVID-19 control at home in 2024 can’t necessarily be accepted as certain: While incubation times have been shortened, “paradoxically, we’re seeing that other people are taking longer to get a positive control,” China said. Hong said.
For what? Chin-Hong said the assumption that makes sense to him has less to do with the effectiveness of antigen tests themselves and more to do with how a user with COVID-19 temporarily expands symptoms in 2024 compared to 2020.
As a reminder, those symptoms are a sign that your body’s immune formula is responding to an invading virus, and at the beginning of the pandemic, during the time when COVID-19 symptoms increase and you get tested, this is most likely already the time. positive case,” Chin-Hong said.
But at this point in the pandemic, most of us now have “a lot of immune experience,” Chin-Hong said, and the average person’s immune formula is “on guard” and “more activated than it was in 2020,” he said. When your body detects a growing coronavirus infection, “your total immune formula becomes restless and active, and you start to have poor health sooner, but you don’t actually have that much virus in your blood yet,” Chin-Hong said. Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way to NPR: “With our immune formula activated, the body’s reaction [now] is much faster than it would have been in 2020, when SARS emerged. -CoV-2 was a new pathogen.
And since many of us are tested for COVID-19 when we start to feel sick, we might be getting tested too early at that point for a homemade antigen kit to stumble upon enough virus in us. between the time your symptoms start and the time you have enough virus in your body to test positive for COVID-19 “it starts to show at the beginning of omicron, but I think it’s more pronounced now. “Chin Hong said.
Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, Kaiser Permanente’s regional infectious disease lead in Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times that she attributes the delay we’re seeing in the effects of accurate testing to other people who have developed immunity to COVID-19. over the years, either from being inflamed or from being vaccinated.
“It’s a throwback when other people’s COVID tests come back positive,” Hudson said. “So, some other people get tested on day 1 and day 2. . . If they were probably testing themselves a few days later, it’s likely COVID. “
The bottom line is this: If you get checked because you’re starting to feel unwell, don’t assume that a negative result means you don’t have COVID-19. Play it safe, stay home as much as you can and wear a well-fitting mask if you can’t, and take another antigen test 48 hours later, Chin-Hong said. You can also use a PCR test, which is more sensitive.
Step 3: Make sure your COVID-19 hasn’t expired
Many COVID-19 checks available lately (e. g. , at your local public library) may be nearing their expiration date if they haven’t passed it yet. And an expired check can simply give you an unreliable outcome.
You can check the FDA’s list of types of antigen controls to see if the shelf life of the box you have has been extended through the manufacturer. The FDA said that if the shelf life of a control has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has provided the company with sufficient “data showing that the shelf life is longer than what was known when the check was first authorized. “(In other words, you can still use this check. )
With the start of the winter respiratory virus season, everyone deserves to take new or additional steps to protect themselves against COVID-19 infection during the level rise, even if this turns out to be a “step backwards” for you, at least at this point in the pandemic.
This could include wearing an N95 mask that fits well to indoor areas that you know may be crowded, such as the grocery store. Or if you have other people inside your home, make sure the area is well-ventilated by taking steps like opening windows.
If the weather permits, you may also want to get outdoors and socialize with friends and family during this time to help reduce the potential risk of COVID-19 transmission. Chances are, the other people you meet are also a little worried about the recent surge in cases, but you don’t feel able to express it for fear of wiping out the social environment. Think about doing a favor to the calmer people around you and being the first user to mention the factor to keep everyone safe. Remember: It is not surprising that he does not miss getting infected with COVID-19.
If you’re at higher risk of getting seriously ill or hospitalized from COVID-19, it’s a very smart idea to take extra precautions against the virus now. These groups may also come with elderly, immunocompromised, and disabled people. like other people who “have not been vaccinated recently, in the last six months or so,” advises Chin-Hong.
Another explanation for why you might be more cautious about COVID-19 right now is if you have upcoming travel plans (e. g. , vacations).
Even if your symptoms are mild, a COVID-19 infection possibly requires isolation from others for more than a week, and you can double that time if you contract a rebound infection (i. e. , a momentary infection), which interestingly isn’t. unusual even in other people who do not take the antiviral treatment, Paxlovid.
Good question. Finding a quick and flexible COVID-19 test, whether it’s an at-home antigen test or a PCR test, is becoming increasingly complicated at this point in the pandemic, as more sites and facilities have been closed.
The federal government, at least, has restarted its free COVID check ordering service at home through USPS, which can request 4 more loose antigen checks in backup to deliver to your door at a later date.
But what do you do now if you don’t already have a source of at-home COVID-19 antigen tests?Try the following:
The quickest option will also be one of the most expensive at first: buying an at-home antigen test from a nearby pharmacy. (Ideally, someone should buy you one so you can’t disclose others to the pharmacy, and if you have to get through, wear a well-fitting N95 mask to lessen the threat you pose to others. )These at-home verification kits typically charge about $20 for a two-pack of antigen tests.
If you have fitness insurance, you can ask your fitness insurance company to reimburse you for the cost of up to 8 in-house tests per month, so don’t throw away receipts.
The PCR test is more accurate than an antigen test, because it is more delicate to detect lines of the coronavirus in your body, but it can take longer to get your results than with an at-home test.
Currently, some sites still offer free COVID-19 testing in the state. Try using:
If you have fitness insurance, you may be able to request a PCR check through your fitness provider with covered prices. Requesting a check through a provider is – – the only way to cover your check prices if you also have Medicare.
Free COVID-19 tests may also be available for pickup at your local Bay Area public library this winter.
To learn more, read our new Bay Area Public Library Consultant offering free at-home antigen tests.
If you’re insured with Bay Area primary providers, such as Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, the easiest option to get a COVID-19 check is likely to schedule an appointment electronically with your specific provider. Most providers offer online registrations through a member’s login. and appointments can also be booked electronically by phone.
For more ideas on how to take a free or cheap COVID-19 test near you, check out the KQED guide, which includes taking a test at your Bay Area county’s public fitness branch or at a personal screening site.
You can read our consultant on how to use at-home antigen tests in 2023 and how effective they are.
Paxlovid (pronounced “pax-LOH-vid” or, rarely, “PAX-loh-vid”) is a highly effective antiviral remedy for COVID-19, which can be purchased by prescription in California.
The remedy is quite undeniable and involves taking one pill orally twice a day for five days. There is some evidence that this can help reduce the chances of developing a long form of COVID-19, and in addition to helping decrease your chances of severe illness or hospitalization, it can also help ease the symptoms of an infection.
Thanks to a smart supply, the drug is no longer reserved for those most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and everyone is encouraged to contact a health care provider to see if they are eligible.
As of February 2023, evidence of a positive COVID-19 test is also not needed to obtain a Paxlovid prescription. But to be effective, health officials proposed starting treatment with Paxlovid within five days of a positive test. it means it’s still very important to get checked out as soon as you think you have COVID-19.
If you have taken Paxlovid for a previous COVID-19 infection, can you take it again for a new infection?Yes, it’s “totally acceptable” to do so, UCSF’s Chin-Hong said if it’s a new “distinct COVID episode. “”The only time it wouldn’t make sense to take Paxlovid a second time,” Chin-Hong said, “is for the same infection, because “you probably wouldn’t get any other remedies even if your test is still positive. “
If you’re looking for a prescription, you’ll know that as of November there have been some changes to the way Paxlovid is funded, meaning that other people with fitness insurance make sure to order Paxlovid “in-network” to avoid an unforeseen bill.
Learn more about how to apply for a Paxlovid prescription or fitness insurance.
At KQED News, we know that it can be tricky to find the answers to navigating life in the Bay Area. We have published transparent and practical explanations and guides about COVID-19, how to deal with intense winter situations, and how to exercise your right. to protest safely.
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An earlier edition of this short story was originally published on November 22. Lesley McClurg, Alexander Gonzalez, and Brian Watt of KQED contributed to the politics of this tale.
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