Yuma trailing on COVID spike, but for how long?

Masks, vaccines critical to keeping COVId variants at bay

In light of rising cases of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted course Tuesday and once again recommended that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas of high COVID-19 transmission.

The new guidance applies to places with at least 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week, which is roughly 60% of all U.S. counties, federal officials said in an Associated Press report.

The concern is the rapid spread of the Delta variant, which is now thought to be at least twice as transmissible as the Alpha variant.

But unlike at initial start of COVID-19, we aren’t powerless. We have the ability to protect ourselves if we choose to do so – and it isn’t complicated.

The first step is to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s not perfect. It will not give you an iron-clad “NO COVID

FOR ME EVER” pass, but it does help prevent infection. And to those vaccinated folks who get COVID, the vaccine helps prevent severe illness and death.

The second step is to wear your mask when you are indoors, whether or not you are vaccinated.

If we want to truly bring COVID-19 into check, more people need to be vaccinated. In Yuma

County, just 48.5% of the population is vaccinated, clearly indicating that more work is needed on this front.

Fortunately, our new case count has stayed relatively low. We aren’t seeing triple-digit new case numbers here, but the new cases are ticking upward, slowly, in a direction that we don’t like.

The CDC released a county-by-county map that allows people to see what their county’s community transmission level is, ranging from low to moderate to substantial to high. (You can check out the map at https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view).

Much of Arizona is high or substantial, but for now, Yuma County remains in the “moderate” category, which is good news.

However, that tide can change with little to no notice.

There’s evidence we should be alert. Yuma County reported on Wednesday that the “Yuma County COVID Early Warning Sewage Testing project has found that concentrations of the virus have been increasing for the past three weeks in several samples taken across Yuma County.”

Readers, that’s concerning. Our case counts have spiked dramatically, but vigilance is needed to make sure those numbers stay low. Masking and vaccinations are layers of protection to keep you safe while also keeping your neighbors, friends and family safe.

It’s important to note that the recommendation isn’t to close businesses or schools. The recommendations are simple: wear your mask and get vaccinated.

With that effort, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told ‘CBS This Morning,” “We can halt the chain of transmission. … We can do something if we unify together, if we get people vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated. If we mask in the interim, we can halt this in just a matter of a couple of weeks.”

It’s up to us all to make it happen.

Unsigned editorials represent the viewpoint of this newspaper rather than an individual. Columns and letters to the editor represent the viewpoints of the persons writing them and do not necessarily represent the views of the Yuma Sun.