San Diego Doctor ‘Cautiously Optimistic' of COVID-19's Future Despite Surge in Canada

As the pandemic seems to be under control in San Diego, it's a different story in other parts of the world.

A local physician, Dr. Jyotu Sandhu, with Sharp Reese-Stealy, told NBC 7 it’s difficult to get accurate real-time trends on a larger scale, so the best course of action is to look at your local region, your county data to see if the number of COVID-19 cases moves in either direction.

In Canada, public health officials report an increase in COVID-19 cases.

"We should be cautious because Canada doesn't have an ocean between us. And people can travel back and forth, you know, the corridor between Detroit and Toronto," said Sandhu.

Still vaccines, access to testing, and treatments all factor into how different regions, cities, and states in the country manage the virus. Also, the way data is collected has changed.

"When it is true that a lot of COVID-19 does go untested and so whatever is being reported is probably being under-reported.” Said Sandhu.

The CDC seems uncertain about future hospitalization forecasts. It estimates to be between 400 and 4,300 in late April.

“It's gonna be difficult because people want to go back to normalcy, but at the same time, you don't want to be naive and say everything's fine and then get hit. So I guess cautious optimism would be good,” said Sandhu.

Sandhu said the most vulnerable are the unvaccinated and immunocompromised. But important to note, the current dominant sub-variant BA.2 is not as infectious as Delta was, Sandhu said.

"The other compounding variable could be well we're more protected now as a society. We're more vaccinated and so that now is also keeping rates or detrimental cases low,” said Sandhu. “So as long as we continue to keep on that wagon, I think we should be as best protected in the future."

The endpoint, Sandhu told NBC 7 is making sure the rates are staying low, people are protected so that hospitals are not overrun and continue to provide the care needed.