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More than 600 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bexar County over the last week, for the second week in a row. Dr. Jason Bowling, a specialist in infectious diseases at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, said the positivity rate is currently at around 11%, down from 35% as summer faded into fall.
Though COVID numbers seem to have leveled off for the time being, Bowling said they are still second only to one other virus in the region right now.
“Rhinovirus right now has the lead. COVID is number two. So it's declining, but it's still high enough that it's triple digit cases in a week. So when we say it's declining, there’s still a fair amount of COVID out there,” Bowling said.
Bowling added that the current circulating strains of COVID are less likely to make an infected person sick enough to require hospital care, but they can still make someone feel pretty terrible.
“When they do get COVID with current strains, they feel more like what people describe with a flu, like really pretty banged up for several days. Fever. Very tired,” he said.
This lull in cases is likely temporary as the winter respiratory virus season approaches. Cases of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are currently low but are expected to rise alongside COVID during the holiday season. Bowling said now is the ideal time to consider prevention.
“The best thing that people can still do is get vaccines,” Bowling said.
“We know that in the past couple of years we start to see COVID start to go up after Thanksgiving when people get together. They're starting to transmit it. Then that's when we see an increase. January was the height of activity for the winter surge. So people getting the COVID vaccine now, they'll have time for that to get to full protection,” he said.
Bowling recommended getting the COVID vaccine and the flu shot at the same time.
“It makes it more convenient,” he said. “I always worry if people just get one and they want to space it out, that later they get busy or they get infected before they get the other vaccine. Our immune system is sophisticated enough to be able to perform an immune response for both.”
And if you’re old enough, you can add a third vaccine to that appointment. The RSV vaccine is available this year for people who are 60 and older.
