COVID-19 Update

NBC29 (So far, more or less anecdotal):

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A Charlottesville pediatrician says COVID-19 cases among children are rising and it’s getting even harder to detect.

“We’re starting to see just a slight uptick,” Piedmont Pediatrics Physician Doctor Jocelyn Schauer said Wednesday, April 20.

Schauer says she’s seeing more positive COVID-19 cases in her office.

“I think for little kids, sometimes what you think is a cold... they’re not all having fever. A lot of our older kids with this last omicron variant complained a lot about sore throat. We’re still seeing that complaint of a sore throat, but with small children they can’t really tell you they have a sore throat. They’re just having a runny nose,” Schauer said.

With the new BA.2 variant spreading, the symptoms can be subtle.

“Of the two that I tested on Thursday in the office - there is no way I would have known - one was a little kid and one was a teenager and there is no way I would have been able to pick those two out as being the positive COVID cases of the ones I tested,” Schauer said.

With kids back in the classroom and less people masking up, Schauer is predicting a possible Spring surge.

“We’ve been seeing large numbers of viruses, all different kinds, and so I think a lot of people are just assuming this is the same thing that their brother has or the friend has, but it could be COVID,” Schauer said. “I think the most important is to get your kids vaccinated.”