Schuylkill County sees COVID-19 uptick, mimicking flu trends

Sep. 29—It's no surprise to health care workers in Schuylkill County that there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases since July.

Now, the infectious disease resembles that of the flu, often found with cold-like symptoms, fatigue and a mild sore throat, according to Jeffrey Jahre, St. Luke's senior vice president of medical and academic affairs and section chief emeritus of infectious diseases.

"When (people) get sick, they're not getting very sick," Jahre said. "But if you ask them, 'have you had a cold recently?' or 'have you had a stuffy nose recently?' ... Well, yeah, it feels like a cold."

With the federal COVID-19 public health emergency having officially ended on May 11, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported it would change case-reporting practices. Weekly case updates by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to Open Data PA ended on June 28.

These factors, combined with a lack of recorded daily case data by county, make it more difficult to accurately track current case rates, but Alex N. Benjamin, chief infection control and prevention officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network, said wastewater testing conducted throughout the county has revealed a recent uptick.

While exact numbers are unavailable, anecdotal evidence from health care workers like this, in addition to weekly case counts provided by the CDC, confirm this reported upward trend.

Still, Benjamin advises the current dominant variant, EG.5, isn't cause for major concern. Benjamin called it a "mild" variant, and "that is easily transmissible that put people out a few days, but not hospitalization."

He also noted that there are no new variants and that the current variants have been circulating the country for the past six to eight weeks.

Right now, Benjamin said it's hard to predict future trends, considering the upcoming holiday season and accompanying cool weather encourages large indoor gatherings, which increases opportunities for transmission.

Current trends indicate an 11.6% country-wide positivity rate from Sept. 17 to Sept. 23, according to the CDC COVID data tracker. Schuylkill County rates are in line with that, Jahre said.

The tracker shows 26 hospital-admitted cases were added within the same week, placing Schuylkill County in the "low" hospital admission level. The country currently displays a negative 3.1% change in admissions, according to the tracker.

Jahre said unvaccinated individuals or those with severe underlying diseases often make up recent hospital admissions.

"What's the bottom line right now is that, although we all want to put COVID in our rearview mirror and say it's totally past history — it's not, it's still out there, people are still getting ill," Jahre said. "... It's become very much like influenza."

Approaching cold and flu season, Jahre said he encourages individuals of all ages to get vaccinated for influenza, in addition to their booster jabs, noting that "it's expected that it's likely to be a worst year this year" for flu season. Though, Jahre said he doesn't recommend getting both vaccinations at the same time if possible.

With symptoms often manifesting in a cold-like manner and sometimes appearing later than the date the virus is contracted, Benjamin wants people to know that infected individuals are still contagious during that asymptomatic timeframe.

He said he encourages anyone displaying cold-like symptoms to get tested, consider obtaining prescribed medications like paxlovid or lagevrio — which are approved to treat COVID-19 — and to mask for a full ten days to avoid spreading the disease.

For now, he said LVHN health care teams have taken a precautionary approach to this year's cold and flu season.

"We have a really transmissible virus," Benjamin said. " ... but we're keeping an eye on what's going on ... we want to stay prepared."