COVID-19's latest strain the flirt variant is on the rise in New Jersey and across the country the number of covid-19 infections reported in New Jersey has been steadily increasing over the summer the summer wave of covid could also be in part due to the flirt variant being highly contagious and people are gathering in large groups indoors and out while covid-19 infection numbers are still relatively low compared to the numbers during Peak infection December of 2021 new variants of the corona virus have found a way to evade immunity affecting even people who have previously had covid-19 and as senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports the uptick in cases has now left pharmacies selling out of CO's antiviral medication at Hudson drug of creskill Pharmacists diagnosed New Jersey's latest wave of covid cases by the spike in orders for the antiviral covid medication packs liid instead of dispensing two or three packs a week they've been selling that much every day in fact this past weekend uh we had uh run out of pax of it due to the fact that we we had you know six or seven um boxes on the shelf and they were all dispensed um because you know there's been an increase in infections Co has generated summer mini waves the virus spreads when folks pack airports for vacation travel or cluster in big crowds for parties and rallies and the recent Heat Wave drove people to gather indoors to cool off plus the virus has evolved more infectious flirt variants we are definitely seeing an increase in the number of cases they are associated with some of the new variants that have been floating around literally floating around in the air around us so we have been seeing cases go up people are not testing quite as much as they had in the past I think the numbers are much higher than we know and a lot of people are saying well it's a cold or it's you know maybe flu or allergies um and it's likely to be Co whenever there's a surgeon committee you're going to see Associated increases in hospitalization too um just because there's a lot of vulnerable people out there New Jersey's Department of Health reports lab confirmed cases Rose from about 1570 on the weekend in June 29th to over 2200 in mid July easing off a bit last week hospitals logged about 230 covid admissions that Rose to more than 400 over the same time frame though not every hospital reported and while covid patients used to be from all age groups now it's a rare very rare occurrence whereas now we see predominantly people are being hospitalized because of covid they are generally over the age of 65 they have uh medical issues they're can be highly compromised marst toown Medical Center Dr Jason Kessler says if you're over 65 or have health problems take precautions like wearing a mask in a crowd and while traveling hey if I was going to Europe for a trip of a lifetime that was going to be lasting you know 3 weeks I didn't want to get sick sick on when I was first arriving there I would take extra precautions I would go ahead and put on that well-fitting n95 mask experts note flirt variants can infect folks who've had covid before but the current vaccine does offer some protection and it could help ease some of the misery upper respiratory symptoms fever muscle aches plus a newer debilitating fatigue people are saying they just can't even wake up they're just sleeping a lot um and so it's a lot harder for people in terms of can you muscle through and even work from home so we do want to do what we can to try to protect everybody else around us and that means taking some of those steps that CDC has talked about and largely Common Sense stay home when you're sick you know if you're coughing you're running fevers and other things you shouldn't be exposing other people whether it's co or flu or something else Studies have shown the current covid vaccine also helps prevent long covid a new monovalent vaccine designed to Target the flirt variants should be available this fall we're expecting to see that Ines um mid to late August meanwhile he's stocking more Pax liid I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news