SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — Local doctors are noticing new trends in COVID-19 cases as they rise once again.
“A lot more children this round,” said Dr. Ron Kattoo, the director of Express Med Urgent Care in Southfield.
Kattoo, a pulmonary and critical care doctor, says he’s seeing more children in and out of his urgent care.
“For parents to be vigilant with their kids and not to take upper respiratory symptoms as just a cold,” he said.
Doctors can’t put their finger on an exact reason why cases are up, but they believe the different variants are to blame.
“Roughly after mid-January, things died down where I was only seeing one or two cases a week and now, we are back up to four or five cases a day,” Kattoo said. “The cases are definitely much milder in terms of symptoms. This round is much more contagious, but the symptoms aren’t as bad.”
Not only are doctors seeing a rise in cases, but they are also seeing a rise in reinfections.
“I’ve actually heard reports of some folks getting infected for a third or fourth time.” Not so long ago we though reinfection would be rare but that was before omicron, but the virus has since evolved,” Dr. Partha Nandi, 7 Action News’ chief health editor, said.
He goes on to say that if you were infected with the first omicron variant, you can still get newer variants.
“The omicron infection does not produce a very strong immune response. So, protection wanes quickly, which opens the door for another infection maybe three of four months later,” he said.
Even though there are breakthrough cases, Nandi says getting the vaccine is the best way to prevent serious illness.
Doctors say another good prevention tool to help stop the spread of the virus are the test kits.
People are now eligible to order a third round of the free COVID-19 at-home kits offered by the federal government.
Kattoo says place your order as soon as you can.
“As we saw with the last huge surge, it was difficult to get them anywhere. You would wait four to five hours to get the test, and having the at-home test will help in terms of work and school and to help make plans,” Kattoo said.
To order your free COVID-19 at-home kits, visit covid.gov/tests.
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.