Imperial County sees increase in COVID-19 cases
Will we ever reach herd immunity? - News 11's Wiley Jawhary reports
IMPERIAL, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The Imperial County Public Health Department is seeing a new increase in COVID-19 cases.
ICPHD reported 106 cases of the virus since Friday July 16. Dr. Stehpen Munday with the ICPDH says that those recent cases starting with the younger population 18 years and older.
“Large number of young people that we have that are essential workers, they are at a higher risk now so we have seen more cases of younger populations going up,” he said.
Dr. Munday also says Imperial Valley's uptick in cases is not as substantial as compared to the rest of California. This is due to the smaller population and a high number of vaccinated residents in the Valley.
"The data is still showing that even with the Delta variant, that that vaccine is the number one way to try to keep this controlled and contained," he said.
With the recent uptick many are starting to wonder if this up and down in cases will be the new normal. The question becomes, will we ever reach Herd Immunity?
“It’s really an impossible question to answer, but I’ll do my best, the fundamental reason is that this is a new disease and therefore we don’t have much historical data on it,” he said.
Dr. Munday says the disease is becoming more contagious as new variants make their way into the valley.
"The problem with COVID-19 is that these variants keep changing and the ones that are mutating are becoming more contagious, that changes the amount of the population that needs to be protected for us to have herd immunity," he said.
“We may have some herd immunity in the valley because not only did half of the population get immunized but 20% of the population did get covid,” Dr. Christian Tomaszewski from El Centro Regional Medical Center said.
Dr. Munday says that the vaccine is doing its job fighting against variants and keeping people out of the hospital.
Health experts explain that while some level of herd immunity may have been reached in the Valley, just because you got COVID-19 once doesn’t mean you have full immunity. Their ultimate advice is to get that vaccine.
As of now here in the Valley with this slight uptick, it seems like we are treading water.
