Co is on the rise in our area New Jersey showing numbers nearly double what they were in early June and New York City's rates have risen by about 250% from the two months prior now the numbers are still relatively low compared to Peak outbreak numbers but the new variants called flirt variants have found a way to evade immunity we have epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera here with us to explain what to look for in terms of symptoms and what to do if you find yourself infected this summer Stephanie we see these flirt cases really able to immunity um what should folks look for in terms of symptoms if they think that they might be infected so unfortunately the symptoms are pretty broad so it can be something from a runny nose fatigue cough chills things that we've seen before but some people have none of those symptoms and are experiencing things like nausea vomiting and diarrhea without any of the other symptoms so really if you're feeling sick if you have a fever you should test yourself to see whether or not you should try to stay home if you're able to um even in the more severe cases do we still see that symptoms are milder than what they were yes so thankfully the flirt variant is a um subvariant of Omron but we're not seeing what we saw with the Omicron so this is a much milder illness though as you noted it's much more transmissible okay so what should folks do if they have been infected we know guidelines have kind of slowly been relaxed what is the latest guidance so the latest guidance is to stay home until your symptoms subside if you do have a fever stay home until you're fever free for 24 hours hours and the recommendation believe it or not is still that you should continue to wear a mask for 5 days after you've been sort of released back out into the wild who is most vulnerable at this point let's say to someone who might have been exposed if you're kind of going back out in the public who should you be looking out for so as usual anybody who's 65 or older who has a comorbidity they're going to be at greatest risk of ending up in the hospital and that's what we've seen the hospitalization rates are up but it's largely for people who are over 65 or who are in other otherwise autoimmune um should they be masking what is their guidance around masking in general right now so you know the recommendation is always when the case numbers go up people should wear masks especially if you think you are symptomatic right masks do the best when we're preventing transmission from somebody who's sick to somebody who is not so the key here is to really be mindful of your community and if you are sick and you can't stay home please wear a mask okay so I have to ask you Switching gears about Aven flu because it's something we've been tracking and we see that there are four cases in humans right now from the Aven flu that spread from Birds now into mammal life we see this Outbreak on uh dairy cows also madna right now we know was just approved to create a vaccine are we at a point now that humans need to be concerned about the impact on them so right now we're still seeing all of the human cases are people who've either worked with birds or with cows so we have not yet seen a mutation for human- to human transmission that said we know viruses mutate that's how they survive and so we need to keep careful surveillance of what's happening and try to contain those cases as much as we can so that the virus doesn't have an opportunity to mutate to spread amongst humans easily uh what do we know about madera's vaccine where is it in the approval process and in the creation process so they're still working through that process I believe that they are looking at the human trials now I don't expect that it's going to be within the next few weeks but most likely by the end of the year um we don't want to be alarmists right is this something where folks who are not near like do we need to worry when we're going to the grocery store and we're buying chicken no so our produce and our livestock are tested regularly in the United States which is wonderful um the one thing I will say if you're somebody who wants to drink raw milk this is not the time to do that um pasteurization kills the h5n1 virus and so as long as you're drinking pasteurized milk the rest of our food supply is safe all right Stephanie Silvera mediologist at Montclair State University great advice as always thank you thank you support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent LC of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association [Music]