Experts say the predictable summer surge was fueled by a combination of people retreating indoors as the capital region faced its hottest temperatures in decades and school holiday travel as well as the proliferation of variants that evade immunity from vaccines and previous infection.
While the cases aren’t comparable to previous spikes, they’re high enough to cause concern, particularly in Maryland, one of six states where COVID levels in wastewater are “very high,” according to a tracking map from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Virginia is among a dozen states with “high” levels, and state health officials say emergency room visits have been rising steadily since early June. The CDC map doesn’t include data from the District.
Elena Diskin, a respiratory epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health, said that in recent years, seasonal surges have occurred in mid-winter with a peak around New Year’s and in the summer.
“I just didn’t expect to have it in the middle of summer,” said Cindy Carlson, who contracted COVID alongside her husband, Bruce, after seeing Three Dog Night perform a sold-out show at the Birchmere in Alexandria.
At first, they thought Bruce Carlson’s allergies were the culprit. Then his symptoms worsened and his muscles began to ache from the cough. Cindy felt fatigued and had a 103-degree fever. The shelves of pharmacies and supermarkets were emptied of tests, but eventually they saw the double red lines that indicated a positive result.
“This time, the second line was there right away,” Cindy Carlson said. “There was no reason to wait the full 15 minutes.”
Some communities, including Montgomery County, are still offering free at-home tests at libraries while supplies last, but many are finding themselves rushing to buy the last boxes on pharmacy shelves.
The CDC’s guidelines treat COVID like other common respiratory viruses, advising sick people to isolate themselves until their symptoms improve or they have been fever-free for 24 hours. For the next five days, officials recommend wearing a mask, keeping your distance and getting tested if you plan to be around others indoors, which the CDC recommends any time the coronavirus is circulating widely in the community.
Even Kisha Davis, Montgomery County’s top public health official, said she knew cases were rising as neighbors, churchgoers and even President Biden tested positive.
“The fact that the president has contracted COVID-19 reminds us that COVID-19 is still here,” she said. “At this point, it’s probably going to be with us forever.”
Davis said that while the current variants do not appear to cause severe illness, more people are reporting gastrointestinal symptoms in addition to the fever, sore throat, cough, body aches and headaches that can be hallmarks of COVID.
“Whether it’s Covid, the flu or RSV, stay home until you’re better and that really helps everyone,” she said.
Cheryl Feik Ryan, 62, is rethinking how she will approach major events and future travel after contracting COVID-19 following a June trip to see Taylor Swift. She isolated in her Wesley Heights home while sick and had to cancel a trip to see her 92-year-old mother in Houston.
Almost a month later, she still has a cough.
“You know, during the pandemic, you wore a mask on the plane or in the airport and you thought, ‘What a great idea to prevent all kinds of infections!’ But, of course, the world went back to normal and no one is wearing masks,” she said. “I think about it now, especially in these big crowds.”
Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, has noticed an increase in patients reporting Covid-like symptoms and has heard of more cases among his friends — which shouldn’t come as a surprise, he said.
“They asked us last summer if it surprised us and I said no. They asked us the summer before if it surprised us and I said no,” he said.
Even though cases are rising, Adalja said that should reassure people that there are more tools to prevent, treat and manage COVID than any other respiratory virus, including wastewater monitoring, vaccines and the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
“We have to recognize that this is an endemic respiratory virus,” he said. “There is no way to prevent it completely.”
As a politician, Montgomery and Ashton County Councilmember Dawn Luedtke shakes a lot of hands and always keeps hand sanitizer handy. The virus still “crept up” on her and her 16-year-old stepson, who initially thought that working in the garden had triggered allergies.
“The heat level and other factors … make you a little less likely to think it’s COVID. In the winter, you’re more likely to think it might be COVID,” she said.
Luedtke, who has an autoimmune disease, doesn’t typically wear a mask, she said, “but knowing that there’s a very active surge in the community now, I’m more interested in wearing a mask in indoor gathering spaces.”
Cheryl Coogan, 65, of Arlington, wears a mask on planes and public transit, avoids crowds and rarely dines indoors at restaurants for four years — though she began to suspect she might be immune to the coronavirus after multiple exposures and zero infections.
But last month, she said, her luck ran out. When she started coughing at night, the oximeter her daughter had purchased at the height of the pandemic showed her blood levels were dropping. Her fever spiked to 102.7 degrees.
“I’m a tough old guy and I don’t get scared easily,” Coogan said. “But this scared me.”
Nearly three weeks after initially testing positive, she is still congested, sneezing and coughing.
“We were very cautious, actually,” she said. “But it seems like there’s no way to avoid it now.”
Kyle Swenson contributed to this report.
