Local officials on Friday said San Diego County has met the metric that it can be removed from the state watch list, although confirmation of those numbers is pending state approval.
For the third consecutive day, the province recorded an average of 14 days of less than 100 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants. The province reported a rate of 96.3 on Friday, 98.3 on Thursday and 94.1 on Wednesday.
It is an important milestone, one that signals that renewed efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus are paying off well. The province must maintain its new status for 14 more consecutive days for the state to allow K-12 schools to reopen. No other businesses can reopen until the state provides further guidance, provincial officials said Friday.
A county spokeswoman told the San Diego Union Tribune that health officials hope to hear from the state about a timeline by the end of the weekend.
The lower rate was not the only achievement for the province. Officials reported 299 hospitals COVID-19 patients as of Thursday, the first time in more than a month that it has reported less than 300.
While Friday’s numbers remained generally encouraging, community outbreaks remained much higher than the province’s own threshold for easing certain health restrictions. Four new outbreaks of the community were reported Friday, bringing the total to seven days to 24. Two of the new outbreaks were at businesses: one a restaurant with a bar; another in a food processing plant. The province has not released the names of the sites.
The 24 outbreaks were more than three times the number the province has set as a “trigger” for stricter restrictions on public health: seven or more outbreaks over a seven-day period.
It was not clear Friday how the county would adjust restrictions if it is removed from the state’s oversight list, while still reporting more outbreaks from the community than it considers acceptable.
Another potentially problematic issue reported Friday was new cases. The province reported 406, far above the average of 240 new cases it had to report to prevent a new warning signal with the state.
The province reported that 4% of the total tests on Thursday were positive. The 14-day average of positive cases was 4.6% – well below the province’s target of less than 8%.
The province reported seven deaths on Friday, bringing the total for the pandemic to 622. The people died between August 6 and August 14. Four were women and three were men, ranging in age from 49 to 94. All but one had an underlying medical condition.
Cook writes for the San Diego Union Tribune. Staff Writer Paul Sisson contributed to this report.
