Over three years since the emergence of Covid-19, the virus is once again gaining steam. Because testing for Covid-19 and reporting of positive cases remain inconsistent, wastewater surveillance is one of the best measures of the virus’s prevalence in the community, Vox’s Dylan Scott notes. As of late July, Covid-19 in US wastewater has doubled, per Biobot Analytics; Covid-19 hospitalizations rose 12.5 percent between July 23 and July 29, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
This summer also brought a new subvariant of the virus, EG.5 — unofficially dubbed Eris — which has become the dominant strain. EG.5 descended from the omicron variant, Vox’s Rachel DuRose reports, and while the symptoms of EG.5 don’t differ much from other omicron subvariants — cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, body aches, loss of taste or smell, and headaches — it may be more contagious.
Given the accessibility of at-home testing, many people can swab themselves and get a result in minutes. However, this puts the onus on the individual to inform their network if they have tested positive, especially considering that the CDC now recommends contact tracing only in health care settings and certain high-risk congregate settings. In the event someone tests positive for Covid-19, the responsibility now falls to that person to inform their network.
“These conversations, compared to a few years ago, are not only much more widely accepted,” says Donald Yealy, chief medical officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “they’re actually expected more. It’s an act of kindness to share that.”
By telling those you’ve recently interacted with that you’ve gotten sick, you’re empowering them with the knowledge to get tested and to isolate, hopefully to further prevent spread — especially to older or immunocompromised people.
Who to tell
You don’t need to alert everyone in your contacts list that you’ve come…
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