COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Potter and Randall counties

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The city of Amarillo is seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases and health experts say this surge is different.

The current CDC COVID-19 community level for both Potter and Randall counties have also gone up.

Potter County is now at a high level and Randall County is medium.

Health experts say this recent spike can be linked to the new BA. 5 subvariant.

There is currently over 2,350 active cases in both Potter and Randall counties and younger age groups are the ones being most affected.

Experts also say we are seeing some differences in this surge compared to previous ones.

City of Amarillo Physician and Local Health Authority Todd Bell says there is a significant undercount in testing being seen, which is mostly because of the at-home testing kits.

If you test positive, it is important to report that test, which can be done here.

Also, with this variant, the health care system is not seeing as much of an impact.

“Currently we have about 40 or so patients in the hospital, about two thirds of those are folks that are not vaccinated and about a third have been vaccinated,” said Dr. Bell.

He also says symptoms are different for everyone, some could just have allergy-like symptoms.

“If someone has any symptoms that they can’t fully explain as being normal for them, if there’s any difference or change from their baseline, then I would encourage them to be tested,” said Dr. Bell.

If you do have a positive test, officials say you should isolate for five days and then continue wearing a mask around others for an additional five days.

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