New COVID variants, hospitalizations on rise in Northeast

The World Health Organization on Wednesday classified Eris as a “variant of interest” but so far, there is no indication that it poses more of a threat to public health than other variants. Eris has also spawned its own subvariant known as EG.5.1.

For most of the summer, descendants of the XBB variant, which was circulating at the beginning of the year, have made up most COVID-19 infections in the U.S. Eris and FL.1.5.1 are among these. 

Hospitalization rates tied to COVID-19 have risen sharply across New York state recently, though intensive care unit cases and fatalities have stayed consistently low. In the Capital Region, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 jumped from 26 to 51 in the last week. 

State health officials say there is no indication the new variants, which are derived from omicron, are causing the uptick in hospitalizations.

Hospitalization rates are believed to be driven by a combination of factors, including the usual travel and socializing people do during summer months and waning immunity, according to Dr. Kirsten St. George, director of virology and chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the Wadsworth Center in Albany.

“There are mutations in some of the old strains that we’ve seen that have been suggested to be associated with increased severity and none of them are present in these strains,” St. George said. “There are mutations in them that contribute to the evasion of immunity — and that’s immunity generated from either previous vaccination or past infection… So that is also part of the reason why they’re spreading so readily.”

Since most cases are not reported or go undetected, hospitalizations and fatalities are more useful indicators than test results to measure the severity of a COVID-19 wave, according to health officials.

The state’s wastewater surveillance system, another important tool, has detected surging COVID-19 concentration levels in many wastewater treatment plants statewide. Of about 186 active wastewater collection sites, 26 were categorized as having the highest COVID-19 detection levels.

The state’s wastewater surveillance program calculates COVID-19 detection levels in six increments based on virus concentration in sewage samples and case counts in the corresponding community. 

Many sewersheds with the highest detection levels were located in New York City and western New York. 

In the Capital Region, Lake George had the highest detection level of 75-100 percent. Samples from wastewater treatment plants in Bethlehem, Albany and Guilderland fell into the second-highest category, with COVID-19 detection levels at 50-75 percent.