Over the last week, Covid numbers have increased by nearly fifty percent, according to the state.

“The total number of cases in Georgia went to 968 cases daily up from 650 total cases daily last week,” says Alexander Millman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer with the Georgia Department of Public Health.

He says while the overall number of cases continues to be low we did see a large increase in case numbers. Millman says, “This is actually one of the largest increases we’ve seen in some time.”

>> Listen to more from Dr. Millman below.

Other variants are now showing up in our state. In fact, right now in Georgia the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are the two top variants circulating in our state. BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are among hundreds of sublineages of the omicron variant currently in circulation. For much of the summer, BA.5 was the predominant strain moving around the U.S.

While much is not known about the new variants, it does not appear they cause more severe symptoms than previous strains.

>> Listen to more from Dr. Millman below.

Symptoms of BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1 are similar to other COVID-19 variants and include fever, cough, exhaustion, congestion, sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, and headaches.

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