UTRGV medical officer details Omicron symptoms

With the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the Rio Grande Valley, classes at UTRGV are being conducted remotely until Jan. 28. 

Classes will resume according to their assigned modality Jan. 31, according to a campuswide email sent by the Office of the President on Jan. 7.

Integrated health sciences freshman Olivia Rodriguez was hoping classes would not go virtual this semester.

“I have some classes that I registered for that are in person and I’d rather just stay in person than go online,” Rodriguez said. 

Some of the COVID-19 cases are of the Omicron variant. 

As of Jan. 4, Hidalgo County reported five cases of the Omicron variant, according to a news release, and as of Jan. 3, Cameron County had reported one.

“The vaccines are helpful against the Omicron variant,” said Michael Dobbs, vice dean of Clinical Affairs with the School of Medicine and chief medical officer for UT Health RGV. “They’re very helpful. Actually, they’re our best tool.” 

Dobbs said Omicron can evade immunity better than other variants. All of them have the capability to do this, but Omicron seems to have more due to its mutations. 

He said testing for the variant is not part of routine testing for the COVID-19 virus. Dobbs said the symptoms for the Omicron variant are not much different than the ones for COVID, but they are milder. 

With Omicron, there are more upper respiratory symptoms, such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, scratchy throat, than lower respiratory, such as pneumonia.   

“It’s better to have the upper respiratory systems than the lower respiratory symptoms and we do seem to be seeing more of that with Omicron,” Dobbs said. “That may be one of the reasons that we’re not seeing as much hospitalization and death.”

In comparison to previous COVID-19 variants, Omicron is a lot more contagious.

Dobbs was asked how severe Omicron is and whether it can cause long-term symptoms. 

“It’s only been around for a couple of months,” he said. “So, to know if it would cause long-term symptoms, that might emerge later. I would say, [it] would be a little early for us to be speculating on that.”

Dobbs said that to be protected from the variant, people must take precautions. 

“Get vaccinated, be up to date on your vaccination is the most important thing,” he said. Don’t think that just because you got, as an example, two doses of vaccine in early 2021 that you are as protected as you could be because getting a third dose would protect you more. You have to do that at the right time, of course, and also just like in the early days of the pandemic, wearing a good tight-fitting mask in a setting where you are around others will help to reduce the spread of droplets that could contain the virus that causes COVID.”

For information on COVID-19 testing, visit the uthealthrgv.org website. Testing is available to UTRGV students, staff, faculty and members of the community. 

With the rise of Omicron cases in the Valley, Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for Marketing and Communications, was asked how the university is monitoring the spike.

“We work with local, county and state officials to monitor the current situation,” Gonzales said. “We also have some local medical officials from our School of Medicine who also help the university monitor and provide guidance.”

The university plans to follow the same COVID-19 protocols for the spring semester as it did for Fall 2021. 

“Everything that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has recommended is what the university has put into place,” Gonzales said. “In the state of Texas, we are unable to mandate the wearing of masks. But we will continue to strongly encourage our campus community to wear a mask, to stay [at least] six feet [from] each other when possible and to practice good hygiene.”

As of Jan. 6, 16,631 students and 2,377 staff and faculty reported to the university that they are vaccinated, he said. 

“This is self-reported,” Gonzales said. “There’s a chance that there are thousands more that haven’t self-reported to us.”