TYLER, Texas — COVID-19 cases have been rising in East Texas over the last several weeks, especially around Tyler and Longview.
"We want to warn everybody, it's time to pick up your mitigation measures again," said Russell Hopkins, Director for Public Health Emergency Preparedness at NET Health.
According to the CDC, Smith County is back at a high risk for community. Other counties such as Anderson, Cherokee, and Houston counties are also at a high risk level. But why is that?
"B4 and B5 sub variants are now making up the most of the cases, particularly concerning is how infectious they are," Russell said. "But they also seem to be getting around are natural, and vaccine created immunities."
Moving forward, Russell Hopkins from NET Health said it’s still unclear when this new COVID-19 wave will slow down.
"So we'll see a lot more people sick. But hopefully you don't see the number of people suffering severe illness," Russell said.
We have more resources now to keep people out of the hospital than we did last time we were at a high risk for community spread. That includes more readily available testing and two antiviral pills.
"Primarily, [it] is being dispensed to those who either have already advanced to severe illness or who are at high risk of developing bad outcomes from exposure," Russell said.
Both the CDC and NET health recommend a second COVID vaccine booster for anyone 50 or older or if you have a compromised immune system.
Antibody infusion treatments are still available, but NET Health said doctors aren’t prescribing that much, since those antibodies were made for the delta variant.
To see where you can get Paxlovid, an antiviral medication that's used in severe cases of the BA. 4 and BA. variant of COVID, you can click HERE.