@prem2026 Hello, and welcome to the group! I'm sorry you developed GCA. As you can see in my earlier post in this thread, I had a similar experience as you.

To update my status, I finished prednisone after 14 months, and I'm still taking an Actemra injection every other week.

In my 2 years+ of treatment, I had 2 fairly bad colds the first year. They each lasted 2 weeks. I had Covid this past Christmas. It was very mild. I took Paxlovid, and I was sick less than 2 days. It wasn't as bad as a regular cold. I've seen news reports that covid cases are on the rise. You might want to use a mask, but I found that my immune system is stronger than I expected it to be.

If you're at 25 mg prednisone, then you've got a lot of the worst time behind you.

Also, it just occurred to me - you might want to check with your doctor about getting any vaccines you need, like a flu shot and covid booster, before you start the Actemra. The vaccines would probably be more effective that way.