COVID-19, flu may spike amid spring break partying across US: experts

NEW YORK - US experts are warning sun-seeking revelers that even being unmasked outdoors isn't enough to protect them from respiratory illnesses like the coronavirus and the flu, particularly on the currently crowded coastline, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.

"Right now my message would be that COVID is not gone," Jill Roberts, associate professor of public health at the University of South Florida, was quoted as saying in an interview with ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa Bay.

The United States saw a daily average of nearly 37,000 new cases of COVID-19 during the past week, according to epidemiological data compiled by the nonprofit CovidActNow.org. People in coastal states such as Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, New Jersey and California are currently at medium to high risk for COVID-19.

"Overall, deaths and hospitalizations from the disease are falling nationwide, but some researchers expect those numbers to creep up again as mask mandates are lifted. In addition, a 'stealth' subvariant of Omicron, BA.2, has raised concerns both abroad and in the US," said the report.

"The good news for this year is the Omicron wave has really crashed out. The bad news is it's not gone and it still actually has some significant transmission in our area," Roberts said of Sunshine State beaches, where an estimated 570,000 students will flock this spring, according to a recent report by the Tampa Bay Times.