San Diego County public health officials reported 170 new cases of coronavirus on Monday and one new death as daily testing continues to increase.
Just 3% of the latest batch of 5,207 tests were positive, leaving the 14-day rolling average at the same level it has been for weeks.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said testing over the last week averaged 5,277 daily tests– well over the goal of 5,200. This level is considered necessary to control outbreaks as businesses and other activities continue to reopen.
“This represents tremendous work on the part of our public health lab, our Health and Human Services staff, partnership with our healthcare system and the testing that they do, along with our commercial labs, and the state of California and the drive-up testing that they have available,” he said at a media briefing.
Fletcher noted that 13 counties in California do not meet the state’s standards for reopening and could have restrictions reimposed.
“Fortunately, San Diego County is not one of those, which allows us to continue to move forward with our reopening,” he said, but added, “We need the public’s continued help. The reality is we see a number of places around the country that are seeing significant spikes.”
Officials acknowledged that the reopening of bars on Friday had been followed by photos on social media of gatherings of people without face masks, notably in the Gaslamp District.
“The virus is still out there,” warned Supervisor Greg Cox. “We must continue to be vigilant.”
Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, said all but one of the 13 indicators on the county’s coronavirus “triggers dashboard” are satisfactory. Only the change in case count isn’t, but she said that is a statistical aberration due to the high number of recent tests.
“Otherwise, all of the other triggers are green and there is no yellow or red. So this keeps us out of the watch list that the state has,” Wooten said.
Since the first case in March, the county has recorded 232,701 tests, resulting in 9,610 positive cases and 320 deaths.
Statewide there have been 152,468 cases of COVID-19 and 5,100 deaths.
