Some communities around the country are reporting an increase in hospitalizations due to COVID. The CDC's COVID incident manager tells NPR it could be the start of a late summer wave.
Franklin and Cuyahoga counties in Ohio, and Jefferson County in Kentucky are among places with higher case numbers. However, counties around Cincinnati are not seeing much of a rise, according to Hamilton County Public Health Spokesman Mike Samet.
"We're seeing a slight uptick," he says. "It's not horrendous at this point. I guess the message here is that COVID is still with us, vaccines are still available, and all the precautions that we've taken in the past are still valid."
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Since the beginning of July, 24 people in Hamilton County were hospitalized with COVID. There's been one death in the county during that time.
Samet says wastewater is still being monitored for the virus, but positive results from home testing kits aren't getting reported.
"Unless you've gone to a physician, or have been in the hospital, we're not really seeing the results of tests like we did in the past, in the pandemic."
Samet says a vaccine booster should be coming out soon.
"I have not heard an official word, but I do understand that they're looking at a vaccine for the fall, to coincide with the flu vaccine."
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Samet says in the meantime, if you test positive for COVID, all of the previous safeguards still work, including isolating, and wearing face coverings to prevent the spread.
