Study: Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 clinical isolates. Eakrin Rasadonyindee/Shutterstock
(CNN) Repeatedly catching Covid-19 appears to increase the chances that a person will face new and sometimes lasting health problems after their infection, according to the first study on the health risks of reinfection.
The study, which is based on the health records of more than 5.6 million people treated in the VA Health System, found that, compared with those with just one Covid-19 infection, those with two or more documented infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times the risk of being hospitalized within six months of their last infection. They also had higher risks for lung and heart problems, fatigue, digestive and kidney disorders, diabetes and neurologic problems.
The findings come as a fresh wave of coronavirus variants, notably Omicron’s BA.5, have become dominant in the United States and Europe, causing cases and hospitalizations to rise once again. BA.5 caused about 54% of cases nationwide last week, doubling its share of Covid-19 transmission over the past two weeks, according to data posted Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Continue reading Covid reinfections may increase likelihood of new health problems→
A mask-wearing woman stands in the middle of an unmasked crowd at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in May. Jungho Kim/Special to The Chronicle
Summer in the Bay Area means outdoor parties, weddings and music festivals, where people can worry a little bit less about catching COVID-19. But will fast-spreading offshoots of the omicron coronavirus variant change the equation this year?
The highly infectious and immune-evasive BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages of omicron are now the dominant strains in Northern California, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID infections are up across the state as the test-positivity rate nears record levels, meaning the risk is higher in nearly all settings.
“We know they’re more transmissible, so the risk is greater inside or outside,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert with UC Berkeley.
Health experts agree that outdoor activities are still much safer than indoors, since viral aerosols don’t have a chance to accumulate in the air. But with the most transmissible variants yet, chances are you have less protection in certain situations.
“Being at parks and outdoor sporting events is still what we should turn to,” said Dr. Anne Liu, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford. “But if you are in a dense crowd or in an outdoor space that has been modified to look like an indoor space, then the risk becomes higher.”
In other words, walking on an isolated hiking trail or a breezy beach is a lot safer than standing shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrants under a tent at a wedding or singing and dancing with fans crammed into an outdoor concert.
Summer means outdoor activities, where the risk of getting coronavirus is supposed to be low. But will new new COVID variants change things? An attendee of Stern Grove Festival’s opening concert was one of the few wearing masks for the event at Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove in San Francisco in early June. Laura Morton/Special to The Chronicle
The omicron sub-lineages are so new that infectious disease experts are still measuring their potential impact, even in outdoor settings.
“The risk outside is going to be substantially less than inside but we don’t know if it’s changed because we haven’t had a lot of experience with BA.4 and BA.5,” said Swartzberg. “We’re basing our assumptions on BA.1 and BA.2.”
Given the high rate of infection across the Bay Area, there is more virus circulating in the air, so it’s better to be cautious in any environment. That means masking, social distancing, and being aware of your surroundings.
“The chances of being around someone outside or inside who is shedding virus is very high,” said Swartzberg.
“The newest kids on the block, BA.4 and BA.5, cause a lot more reinfections,” he said.
There are certain outdoor situations when you should even consider wearing a mask.
“If I was crowded together with other people where I couldn’t keep my distance, or if somebody near me was talking loudly or singing, I would just carry a mask with me and put it on if I feel uncomfortable,” said Swartzberg.
Wedding receptions and concerts are some examples of high-risk environments where you would likely slip on a high-quality mask, such as an KN95 or KF94, especially if you need to go inside to use the restroom or pick up drinks from the bar.
“These are really transmissible variants. It doesn’t take much time to pick up the virus,” Liu said.
Some people wear masks as Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Soulati Shepherd read “You Are Not Alone” on stage during the Bay Area Book Festival at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley in May. Brian Feulner/Special to the Chronicle
So far, the CDC guidance for outdoor masking is unchanged: People generally don’t need masks outdoors, regardless of vaccination status. However, face masks are recommended in areas of high transmission for individuals not fully vaccinated in a crowded outdoor setting, or in situations with sustained close contact with others who are not fully vaccinated.
Testing is also an effective tool in helping catch potential infections when large groups of people gather, especially if attendees are traveling from different locations.
Keep in mind that BA.4 and BA.5 are taking longer to detect than previous strains of the virus, so anyone showing symptoms should stay at home and isolate. Swartzberg said it is not unusual to see tests with negative results up to three days after people become infected.
“If I was having a party outside, I would ask everybody to do a rapid test recognizing that it’s not going to be foolproof but might pick up a few positive cases,” he said. “If you wanted to add a layer of protection, you would ask people to do a PCR test the day before. We’re now getting results back for those within 24 hours.”
People should also test if they plan on spending any time inside.
“Outdoor activities are often associated with indoor activities,” said Liu. “Any time people are staying in close quarters, like an Airbnb, it is advisable to do testing. The antigen testing has proven to help detect the presence of infection even if doesn’t completely rule it out.”
Three of California’s counties have recorded over 60 cases per day per 100,000 population over the last 7 days. Solano County had the highest of any county, at 67 new cases per day. Stay tuned for tonight’s Solano Health Department details. (Due to the holidays, Solano has not updated its COVID Dashboard since June 30.)
Though new case reports have climbed in California, local officials have hesitated to reimpose mask mandates or limits on public indoor settings. Residents relaxed outdoors in Mission Dolores Park in San Francisco in June. Credit…Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times
California is in the grip of its third-largest coronavirus surge of the pandemic, with roughly 19,000 new cases being reported here each day on average, according to a New York Times database. The true number of people falling sick is undoubtedly even higher, since most at-home test results aren’t included in official case counts.
Experts say the surge is being driven by the Omicron subvariant known as BA.5, which has rapidly become dominant in the United States and is especially good at infecting people even if they’ve been vaccinated, boosted and already had the virus.
“It’s highly immune-evasive, and that is why it’s causing trouble,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego. “And it comes along in California at the same time that we basically have this delusion that the pandemic is over.”
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