NC sees fifth straight week of COVID summer surge

North Carolina is seeing a summer surge in COVID, a trend the state has seen in the last several years.

For the fifth straight week, there’s been an increase in three key metrics health officials still look at: Hospitalizations, emergency department visits and the presence of COVID in wastewater.

“We’ve seen just a little bit of a rise again, unfortunately,” said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke Health.

The prevalence of the virus in wastewater jumped 22% in a week – with more than 17 million particles per person, state data shows.

Health officials rely on this metric to monitor how quickly the virus is spreading even if people are asymptomatic or not getting tested.

Doctors said they’ve noticed a little bump in the numbers each summer since 2020.

WRAL Data Trackers looked at some of the archived data. Significant surges are apparent in the winter but also smaller increases in the summer – right around this time of year, for the past several years.

Some viruses naturally peak twice a year, according to Wolfe. However, he points to behavior that boost COVID cases on the summer as well.

“Teasing apart – How much is the virus? How much is us? How much of it may be simply a collective relaxation and dropping our guards somewhat? – also plays a role there,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe suggests people keep a few rapid tests on hand just in case they are feeling unwell; they can see if COVID is the cause. He also suggests people make sure they’re up to date on their COVID boosters.

Wolfe said that’s particularly important for those who are high-risk because those are the people they’re seeing in hospitals now.

“Most people who still call or contact me that they’ve currently got COVID are actually doing ok,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said more than 95% of people in the U.S. have multiple vaccinations, had COVID-19 multiple times or both.