Covid-19 still poses a real threat, but there’s a new vaccine on the way to join flu and RSV shots.

Like thousands of other Californians in July, Monterey Councilmember Alan Haffa found himself caught up in a wave of Covid-19 infections that began in June and continued climbing in August. Haffa got better, but two days after testing negative he noticed numbness in his feet. Then the numbness began traveling up his body. He went to the emergency room at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, where he was admitted and spent 12 days undergoing intensive therapies to reverse the severe condition.

“It was a rare reaction to Covid in which my immune system attacked my spinal column,” Haffa says. “It was very scary. You don’t know if you’re going to walk again – or worse,” he says.

Now he’s back teaching English at Monterey Peninsula College. He’s also back on the campaign trail, competing for the District 5 seat on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. Covid and the severe reaction cost him five weeks of campaigning for the March 5 primary election.

From his hospital room at CHOMP during a Monterey City Council meeting on Sept. 5, he urged people “to take whatever precautions they need to protect themselves during this Covid surge as the complications can be serious.”

Since July 1, the seven-day average test positivity rate in California has tripled, from 4.4 percent to 13.7 percent as of Sept. 5, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. However, test positivity is a less accurate measure now due to the use of home tests, says Monterey County Health Officer Dr, Edward Moreno. “We are focusing on the indicators that are most reliable,” he says, including hospitalizations due to Covid and people who come to hospitals for other ailments and then test positive for Covid.

Like the rest of California, new hospitalizations in Monterey County jumped in August, peaking on Aug. 25 at 2.9 admissions over a seven-day period, compared to 0.7 reported Aug. 1. In some potentially good news, the rate was back down to 0.7 admissions per seven-day period as of Sept. 2, the most recent available data. Deaths continue to trend downward, as the latest strains have been less lethal. There have been 838 confirmed Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The county’s Health Department is also tracking wastewater surveys, and similar to hospitalizations in the county, the concentration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus peaked in late August at the Carmel Area Wastewater District’s treatment plant, but showed a decrease by Sept. 6, although still higher than the start of August.

Experts are expecting another “tripledemic” this fall and winter of Covid, influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. On Sept. 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of a Covid booster that targets the XBB.1.5 variant, the most dominant strain this year. Those shots could be available within the week. A new RSV vaccine for people aged 60 and up is already available, as are flu shots for all ages. Information about the three viruses, testing and vaccinations is available on a new county webpage at bit.ly/MCFallWinterViruses.