COVID cases starting to surge in Texas.

The rise in COVID-19 cases comes as kids are back in class for the school year. Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department show an uptick of the virus.

Emergency room visits in Texas for COVID-19 went up by nearly 30 percent at the end of August. The CDC also reported a very high level of the virus in wastewater.

Kids back in class are not the only thing that's causing an uptick. Health experts say there is a new strain of the virus that caused 78 percent of the country's reported cases.

The state health department says nearly 4,000 people tested positive for COVID in the last week.

"Currently, what we're seeing in 34 states, COVID is definitely increasing. Now of course it's a completely different organism, frequency is different, lethality is different," Hidalgo County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez said.

State health officials are also monitoring data through wastewater and hospitalizations.

The region that includes Texas has an 11 percent positivity rate. That's much higher than most parts of the country, but still much lower than pandemic levels.

"Now, after 5 years of this evolution, this organism is much more infectious. We used to say that almost every patient could infect another patient. Now we're seeing that every patient can infect three people or four people. So it's much more infectious, certainly much less lethal," Melendez said.

Doctors say COVID-19 symptoms are still the same and the preventative measures haven't changed either.

The state has also seen a rise in other respiratory illnesses like the flu and RSV.

The CDC recommends vaccines and boosters for high risk groups like older adults and patients with underlying health conditions.

Health experts say you should stay up to date with your vaccinations and stay home if you're sick.

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