Holiday gatherings are not just about spending time with friends and loved ones. There are also concerns people can spread illnesses, including COVID-19.
And it comes amid a sharp rise in a COVID subvariant in New England.
Whether people come down with COVID, the flu or the common cold, medical workers are ready.
“The systems are prepared as best we can for these surges that we often see this time of year,” said Dr. Jennifer Martin, St. Francis Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine chair.
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During this holiday season, COVID cases are increasing in Connecticut. The state’s positivity rate hit more than 13% on Tuesday.
The good news is while there was a big Omicron wave a year ago, there hasn’t been a huge surge since new subvariants emerged.
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An Omicron subvariant called XBB is surging in New England, making up more than half of cases, according to CDC data. Though it doesn’t seem to cause more severe illness.
“We haven't really seen that,” said Dr. Paul Anthony, Hartford Hospital Infectious Disease assistant director.
“The new Bivalent booster has been available since the fall was actually tweaked to have some Omicron in it. The latest CDC report shows that it does have great activity against what is circulating right now,” Anthony said.
While 30 people in the state have died from the flu so far this season, the number of emergency room visits has dropped from a previous peak before Thanksgiving.
COVID activity is at medium level across the state.
At St. Francis Hospital, Martin says overall, people in the state do a good job at trying to minimize the severity and the spread of disease.
“It really comes back to those sort of simple things of remembering, you know, to vaccinate when we're eligible, to wash our hands really well and in certain high-risk populations, masking and testing may be appropriate,” Martin said.
Many are hopeful we are on the downward trend, at least when it comes to flu, but admit the last couple of years show it’s hard to make predictions with these viruses.
