San Diego County public health officials reported 117 new coronavirus cases and 5 deaths on Wednesday along with an “encouraging” level of daily testing.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said results from 3,541 tests were tallied in the last day. It was the fifth day in the past week that the number has exceeded 3,000 tests.
“This is encouraging as we continue to work through all of the myriad issues related to a sustained increase in in testing,” said Fletcher at the county’s daily briefing on the status of the pandemic.
County officials have cited 5,200 tests daily as the number needed to prevent growth in infections after the county fully reopens.
Fletcher said the percentage of positive cases in the latest batch of tests was just 3% and the 14-day rolling average continues to decline. “This is good news,” he said.
Since the first case in March, the county has administered 88,097 tests, reporting 5,278 confirmed cases and 194 deaths. The latest victims were aged 56 to 97. All had underlying medical conditions.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, was asked during the briefing whether those victims with underlying conditions should be counted differently in determining the impact of COVID-19.
“Their life is no less valuable than someone’s life who does not have underlying medical conditions,” she said, adding that over 50% of the population has some type of underlying condition.
Among those conditions, officials said, are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, AIDS and compromised immune systems.
