COVID cases surging in San Diego County, wastewater shows
SAN DIEGO — COVID-19 cases more than doubled San Diego County last month based on regional wastewater testing, marking the largest surge in infections since the omicron variant started circulating several years ago.
Data as of Dec. 27 — the most recent available — indicates that as many as 200 cases could be present for every 100,000 residents in the county given the amount of the virus recorded in local wastewater, according to San Diego Epidemiology and Research for COVID Heath.
The spike is nearly as high as the viral load recorded in the wastewater when the Omicron variant reached the region in January 2022, pushing the number of cases reported by the county per day over 10,000.
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Experts say the surge is likely caused by the spread of the JN.1 strain, an off-shoot of omicron that has driven up cases nationwide over the last few weeks amid annual holiday activities.
JN.1 is considered more contagious, but less severe than previous iterations of COVID. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “it does not appear to pose additional risks to public health beyond that of other recent variants.”
Hospitalizations have risen slightly in San Diego County with the surge, although Dr. Marlene Millen, chief medical information officer for UC San Diego Health, says it is not happening at a rate that is unusual for an overall increase in cases.
“It is not always one-to-one that (hospitalizations) are there with the COVID (cases),” she explained. “So far, we haven’t really seen more severe illness than usual. It looks like the vaccines are working, which is good, and that our medications work against it.”
However, the spread of JN.1 comes at a time when hospitals are simultaneously battling a wave of other illnesses like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
These paired with low vaccine uptake has health officials increasingly worrying about a “tripledemic” during the country’s first post-pandemic respiratory viral season, and experts say it will still be a few more weeks before the spread of these viruses reach their peak.
“The hard part is all three contribute to hospitalizations and so when you get three pretty active viruses, then you get more hospitalizations,” Millen said. “It creates a lot more illness in the healthcare system.”
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Some regional health care providers, such as Scripps Health, are temporarily reimplementing COVID-era safety protocols in response to the surge in respiratory illnesses. This includes masking and infection control guidelines for visitors.
Going forward, health experts recommend that people — particularly those who are at high-risk for complications of a COVID infection — take precautions such as getting vaccinated, using a mask when possible, and staying at home when feeling ill. Millen says people should also seek treatment as soon as possible if any symptoms start to worsen.
“The biggest thing I’ve seen this year is that people are getting multiple illnesses and COVID can be one of them,” Millen said. “Folks are still getting pretty sick from it and pretty miserable for a few weeks.”
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