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Local officials said on Friday that San Diego County had reached the metric that allowed it to be removed from the state’s watch list, although confirmation of those numbers is pending approval by the State.
For the third day in a row, the county recorded a 14-day average rate of less than 100 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 population. The county reported a rate of 96.3 Friday, 98.3 Thursday and 94.1 Wednesday.
It is an important step, which indicates that the renewed efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus are bearing fruit. The county must maintain its new status for an additional 14 consecutive days for the state to allow K-12 schools to reopen. No other business can reopen until the state provides further guidance, county officials said on Friday.
A county spokeswoman told the San Diego Union-Tribune that health officials hoped to hear from the state about a schedule by the end of the weekend.
The lower case rate was not the only success for the county. Authorities reported 299 hospital patients with COVID-19 on Thursday, the first time in more than a month that it has reported fewer than 300.
While Friday’s numbers were generally encouraging, community outbreaks remained much higher than the county threshold to ease some health restrictions. Four new community outbreaks were reported on Friday, bringing the total from seven days to 24. Two of the new outbreaks occurred at businesses: one in a restaurant with a bar; another at a food processing facility. The county has not released the names of the sites.
The 24 outbreaks were more than three times the number the county set as a “trigger” for tighter public health restrictions: seven or more outbreaks in a seven-day period.
It was not clear on Friday how the county would adjust the restrictions if it were taken off the state’s watch list while still reporting more community outbreaks than it deemed acceptable.
Another potentially problematic number reported on Friday were new cases. The county has reported 406 cases, far exceeding the average of 240 new cases it would need to report to avoid a new warning signal with the state.
The county reported that 4% of Thursday’s total tests were positive. The 14-day average of positive cases was 4.6% – well below the county’s target of less than 8%.
The county reported seven deaths on Friday, bringing the pandemic total to 622. People died between August 6 and August 14. Four were women and three were men, aged 49 to 94. underlying medical condition.
Cook writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Writer Paul Sisson contributed to this report.
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