COVID is rising, but some are cutting corners on safety. Is it making things worse?

Certainly, people are trying to get back to whatever life was like before the pandemic," said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. "We're in a different place than we were before. ... However, good common sense shouldn't go out the window."

Doctors emphasize the importance of sick individuals avoiding spreading the virus, although COVID is now less severe due to immunizations and past infections, and safety guidelines are less strict.

A new more transmissible subvariant group called FLiRT, comprising KP.3, KP.2, and KP.1.1, is becoming more prevalent, accounting for 70.5% of recent COVID specimens.

Surveys show decreased COVID concerns among Americans compared to earlier pandemic stages, with fewer individuals worrying about contracting the virus or seeing it as a major health threat.

Read at Los Angeles Times