With a new Covid-19 variant on the rise, here’s how to stay safe this holiday season
CNN
As people across the country prepare for holiday celebrations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging anyone who hasn’t gotten the latest vaccines against respiratory viruses to do so now to avoid getting sick and spreading illness.
As people across the country prepare for holiday celebrations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging anyone who hasn’t gotten the latest vaccines against respiratory viruses to do so now to avoid getting sick and spreading illness. For the first time, there are vaccines available to protect against Covid-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. But there is an “urgent need” to boost vaccination coverage amid increasing levels of respiratory disease, the CDC said in an official health advisory last week. Vaccination rates in children and adults remain low as virus activity increases. Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says he shares the CDC’s sentiments specifically concerning Covid-19. “The number of Covid hospitalizations is now going up pretty abruptly,” Hotez said, adding that the new JN.1 subvariant is on the rise. JN.1 is now causing about 20% of new Covid-19 infections in the US, the CDC estimates. It is the fastest-growing coronavirus subvariant in the US and is already dominant in the Northeast.
