SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that another spike in COVID cases is on the way. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has more.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: COVID has surged every summer since the pandemic began, and this summer looks no different. Benjamin Silk is at the CDC.
BENJAMIN SILK: Overall, COVID-19 activity is currently low nationally. But we're seeing signs of increasing activity in certain areas of the country, including the southeast, southern and West Coast states.
STEIN: The amount of virus showing up in wastewater has been increasing for weeks. And the number of people testing positive for the virus and showing up in emergency rooms to be treated for COVID has started ticking up in those bellwether parts of the country, too.
CAITLIN RIVERS: We are now seeing the beginnings of the summer COVID surge. We are in the early days of a summer wave.
STEIN: Caitlin Rivers is an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.
RIVERS: This pattern of beginning activity in the South and then spreading on to other regions is very familiar. We see this every summer. And so when I start to see Florida, Georgia and Texas begin to rise, then I feel that other areas of the country will soon follow.
STEIN: It's impossible to know how big this summer surge will get or how long it will last. But it could be another big one because it's been a while since most people got vaccinated and because last winter's wave was relatively mild. Katelyn Jetelina is an epidemiologist who writes the newsletter "Your Local Epidemiologist."
KATELYN JETELINA: One of the bigger factors is how many people are susceptible to infection because they just haven't been infected in a long time. And that number is really high in the United States, particularly because we did not have a big COVID winter.
STEIN: So Jetelina, Rivers and others are urging people to protect themselves, especially if they're vulnerable because they're older, have other health problems or are pregnant.
RIVERS: Nobody likes to get sick. It's a real nuisance at minimum when you are out of work or out of school. For people who are immunocompromised, older adults, people living with health conditions, COVID-19 does still cause a real risk.
STEIN: People can mask up in crowded places like airports. They could even think about getting another booster, especially because new federal policies mean it's unclear how easy it will be for a lot of people to get one of the updated COVID vaccines this fall.
Rob Stein, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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