COVID cases on the rise in Guilford County as fall approaches

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Guilford County as the fall season approaches. County commissioners received an update on the latest numbers Thursday.

Public Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann says Guilford is in the middle of a wave similar to last year. She says the county is still dealing with an Omicron variant of the virus.

"There are some studies right now that show that it does escape immunity a little bit easier than some of the previous variants, but it's not as infectious as we thought it would be," Vann says.

The state Department of Health and Human Services currently measures COVID levels through wastewater and hospitalizations. According to its data, Greensboro lies in the eighty to one-hundredth percentile, which is the highest level of detection. High Point is in the sixty to seventy-ninth percentile.

Vann says this wave is not fully associated with the start of school. Instead, high temperatures over the last month have forced more people inside.

She says the new vaccine is expected to come by early October.