Health officials offer precautionary reminders amid BA.5 variant surge

Aug. 11—ANDERSON — For the first time since the omicron variant surged across the country in January, the Centers for Disease Control's COVID data tracker has placed Madison County at its red level, triggering renewed reminders from health officials about precautionary measures against the disease.

"More than anything I would stress — particularly as we go back to school — just continued hand washing," said Stephenie Mellinger, administrator with the Madison County Health Department. "Staying home when sick is also going to be huge. That really is going to be a key component right now. That's tough to do because our culture, we want to push through and just get the job done, and this is not a time to do that."

The BA.5 variant of COVID has over the summer become the dominant strain of the virus. Even though it has shown the ability to evade immunity offered by both the coronavirus vaccine and subsequent boosters, physicians note that, more often than not, it carries mild symptoms and infrequently prompts hospitalizations.

"The most important thing to ask yourself in regard to this surge is, what is your risk profile," said Dr. Ram Yeleti, chief physician executive at Community Hospital Anderson. "Are you a high-risk person who's older than 75 and has heart disease or other problems? If you're a high-risk individual or you're around high-risk individuals, you definitely need to be much more cautious."

Yeleti noted that, more than two years after the coronavirus first appeared in the United States, the variants that have followed the initial outbreak suggest that the disease has become entrenched to the point that many medical professionals are approaching it with similar attitudes to those associated with the flu and other seasonal viruses.

"It's important to remember you very well may get this, but you also don't need to worry that it's a bad sentence to get it," Yeleti said. "We have such a negative aspect of getting COVID and becoming COVID positive. ... We need to learn to live with it in our lives, just like the common cold."

Yeleti still advises getting vaccinated and boosted, and other health officials continue to recommend staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.

Mellinger noted that, as area schools resume fully in-person classes for the first time in two years, infection numbers are likely to increase locally for some time to come. But she added that those numbers should be placed in their proper context.

"I do believe we're going to see an increase in cases as a result," she said. "At the same time, I think what's important to remember is while we don't want anyone to be sick, this particular variant — and most of the cases that we have now are BA.5 — it's still a mild-to-moderate strain.

"We aren't seeing the level of severe illness that we did with previous strains," Mellinger added. "That's my silver lining at the moment, knowing that our cases likely will increase."

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