On July 3, the County was placed on the state’s Watch List after the region’s case rate exceeded 100 positive cases per 100,000 people for three days in a row.
The County has not met that metric since then, and the case rate is now 145.3.
What must San Diego County do to get off the watch list? The answer is in the hands of San Diegans.
Local health officials continue to urge San Diego residents to cover their faces, avoid meetings, stay six feet away from anyone outside their home, wash their hands thoroughly, and take other preventive measures. to stop the spread of COVID-19 and prevent outbreaks in the community.
“We hope that the actions we have taken in the past few weeks will help us flatten the curve and reduce the number of cases,” said Wilma Wooten, MD, MPH, the county’s public health officer. “With your help, we hope that the cases will decrease.”
After the County reduces its case rate to the state metric for at least three days, it is removed from the Watch List. If that does not happen, the County will not be able to open more sectors of the economy and schools will not be able to open for in-person instruction.
The County has its own set of indicators, or “triggers,” that it is tracking and that could lead to changes in the health order. On June 30, the County reached the Case Investigation trigger because the percentage of investigations initiated within 24 hours of notification over a seven-day period fell below 71%. The percentage has decreased dramatically since then. On July 19, the trigger was 8%. However, the percentage of investigations increases to almost 60 percent after 72 hours and is likely to improve with the addition of more case investigators.
This week, the County is adding nearly 100 new case investigators to contact positive San Diegans and identify who their close contacts were. The new employees will join the more than 520 case investigators and contact trackers currently working to stem the pandemic.
Going forward, the County will also hire approximately 200 case investigators from the more than 2,300 job applications submitted in the past few days. The booth closes at midnight on July 20.
Community outbreaks on the rise
The number of COVID-19 outbreaks in community settings continues to increase across the region. It has steadily increased in July.
So far this month, 47 outbreaks have been reported in community settings, already exceeding the 33 reported in June and the 27 confirmed during the first three months of the pandemic.
Restaurants with bars account for the vast majority of community outbreaks confirmed this month. The County Department of Environmental Health continues to work with restaurants to ensure they follow public health guidelines. County strike teams are being deployed to companies and other sites where the outbreaks are confirmed and to ensure they are following state and local guidance.
Outbreaks in community settings:
- No new outbreaks were identified on July 19.
- In the past seven days, 16 community outbreaks were confirmed.
- The number of community outbreaks stays above the trigger of seven or more in seven days.
- An outbreak in a community setting is defined as three or more cases of COVID-19 in one setting and in people from different households.
Tests:
- On July 16, 7,884 tests were reported to the County and 5.7% were new positive cases.
- The 14-day moving average percentage of positive tests is 6.1%. The goal is less than 8.0%.
- The daily average of 7-day tests is 8,922.
Cases:
- 453 new cases were reported in San Diego County for a total of 24,135.
- 2,215 or 9.2% of cases have required hospitalization.
- 575 or 2.4% of all cases and 26% of hospitalized cases had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
Deceased:
- There were no reported deaths from COVID-19 in San Diego County on July 19. The total for the region remains at 478.
More information of COVID-19:
You can find more information about COVID-19 and detailed data summaries on the County’s coronavirus-sd.com website.
.
