COVID cases on the rise, extreme cases appear to decline

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Texas and across the country, reaching numbers seen at the height of the pandemic. However, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID are not also rising.

As summer travel wraps up and kids prepare to head back to the classroom, experts say everyone needs to remember typical illness prevention.

Dr. Nancy Dickey with Health For All says this means making sure the kids are healthy enough to show up for school.

“When kids go back to school, we start putting all those sweet little faces in one room and they’re a little less good about hand washing, about covering their face when they cough, and so getting kids their flu shots before they start school, their COVID shots before they start school are also reasonable ways to try to reduce the likelihood of getting COVID,” she said.

Many people experiencing COVID-19 right now are reporting mild flu-like symptoms. Dr. Dickey says it doesn’t matter if it’s the flu or COVID, deciding to stay home is the right choice.

”If you’re not feeling good okay in particular, if you’re running a fever, you probably owe it to people to say I’m going to work from home today,” she said. “If you’re feeling more than just a little bad, you may want to get tested because again remember that window for getting either flu medicine or COVID medicine is the first couple of days that you’re sick. So if you waited out five to seven days, you may have missed the window.”

Dr. Dickey says this is especially true for those with compromised immune systems.

”If you are at risk for some reason, your age, medicines you’re taking, maybe you’re on chemotherapy or something, then I think you still need to avoid very crowded places because that’s where folks are most likely to unknowingly spread the disease around. Actually long before we had COVID, we would tell patients who were at risk the same thing,” she said. “Think twice about big events. Consider having a dinner with two or three couples, not 25 of your closest friends. Consider going to a small theater instead of a crowded theater where everyone is. In terms of airplane travel, be sure you’re taking a mask and that you’re cleaning all those surfaces.”

Texas has one of the highest positivity rates in the country for COVID-19.