COVID becoming a California summer staple as winter outbreaks fade

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Set us as preferred Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world, experts in California say the disease appears to be becoming more of a summer rather than a winter phenomenon.The shift was noted over the past couple of years and has become even clearer in 2026, prompting health officials to refocus their prevention efforts.The U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says COVID-19 is growing or likely growing in 43 states at the moment, including California.California is also one of only four states where COVID wastewater activity levels are considered moderate or high, according to the CDC.

“Our summer peak was much higher in 2025 than it was in the winter,” Dr.Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state public health officer, said in a recent briefing.

“Summer is really the bigger peak.So if you do have patients or loved ones who have not gotten the ’25-’26 vaccines, it is still effective and highly recommended, given this surge we’re starting to see.” The pattern is also being seen nationally.

COVID-related emergency department visits peaked last summer in late August, with COVID being responsible for 1.7% of visits.The winter peak was 1%.

The trend was even more stark in California, peaking last summer at 2.1%, while there was not much of a winter peak at all, maxing out at around 0.2%.California It wouldn’t be surprising for a summer increase in COVID to begin now.

Large numbers of people haven’t fallen ill with COVID for quite a while.This trend puts COVID in relatively rare territory as far as respiratory diseases go.Typically, those ailments — think flu and respiratory syncytial virus — spike in the winter, and aren’t really seen outside of that season.In the early years of the pandemic, COVID spiked in both the summer and winter, wit...