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COVID becoming a California summer staple as winter outbreaks fade
Honolulu Star-Advertiser • • health
Key Points:
- COVID-19 in California is increasingly becoming a summer illness rather than a winter one, with summer peaks in cases, hospitalizations, and wastewater viral levels surpassing winter surges in recent years.
- Health officials urge vaccination with the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine, especially for high-risk groups such as seniors, immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women, and young children, as cases and test positivity rates rise.
- The shift in COVID seasonality may be influenced by emerging variants and accumulated immunity from vaccines and prior infections, although the exact reasons remain unclear.
- Despite reduced severity compared to early pandemic years, COVID-19 still poses risks including long COVID and increased cardiovascular events, with over 20,000 deaths nationwide in 2025 and nearly 1,800 in California.
- The FDA recently approved the first mRNA-based flu vaccine, mFLUSIVA, for adults 50 and older, which may allow faster development of new flu vaccines in response to emerging strains in future seasons.
