Ask The Doctors: Are we headed into another surge?

And just like that, it seems we’re on an upswing.

Over the weekend, the Commonwealth marked 24 new COVID deaths, and more than 5,200 new infections.

That number — 5,200 — marks a more than 1,200 case increase from the previous weekend, which itself marked an 800 case increase over the weekend before that. ICU beds are filling across the state, exacerbated by staffing shortages. And after months of reporting few cases of the coronavirus, there are now outbreaks in some of the state’s jails and prisons.

Even as kids 5-11 get their shots, many adults qualify for boosters, and now there’s talk of a COVID-19 pill, we seem to be headed in the wrong direction.

We take listener calls with Dr. Davidson Hamer, infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center and a professor of infectious diseases and medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. And Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, an infectious disease physician, Associate Hospital Epidemiologist and Medical Director of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program at Tufts Medical Center.