The region is currently experiencing a spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations, but the severity of the illness is nowhere near what it was about two years ago, according to local hospital officials.
Dr. Paul Graman, infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said the recent increase in COVID numbers is in part due to the virus's ability to mutate and evade current immune responses.
“The virus is always mutating and evolving and changing at least slightly,” said Graman. “Our immunity that we've developed — those protect us, but they may not protect us quite as much as they did, as the virus changes.”
Graman said if you’re experiencing COVID-like symptoms but test negative, you may want to wait another day or two and test again. He said the virus is being identified through the nose, and it may take the body some time to develop enough virus to be detected in an at-home-test.
“You don't want to take that first test as being an absolute,” he said. “The amount of virus may increase over a couple of days as you're just kind of getting into the illness.”
Graman said if you do test positive to stay home. He also recommended wearing a mask for a few days even after a negative test result
"We're in a lot better place than we were two or three years ago,” Graman said. “So as painful as this is, we're still heading in the right direction.”
