Worried About New Covid Variants? Here’s What To Expect

When Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases specialist with University of California, San Francisco, hears about a new variant, she first looks at the hospitalization rate in the region that it’s spreading in to see if and how it’s increasing. In areas of high vaccination, cases are no longer a completely accurate indicator of how severe a wave will be — as immunity has increased, hospitalizations have significantly decoupled from cases, Gandhi said. Keep in mind that at-home COVID test results are often not recorded by health departments, which makes it tough to determine what the true case count ― and therefore rate of hospitalization ― is in a given community.

Article source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-covid-variants-what-to-expect_l_624c5fdce4b0587dee6f1df7