San Diego County public health officials reported 354 new COVID-19 infections Wednesday and seven more deaths from the pandemic illness.
This comes a day after the county learned it will remain in the substantial, or red, tier of the state’s four-tier COVID-19 reopening plan for at least another two weeks.
However, a new wrinkle in how the state uses coronavirus data was announced Wednesday by county Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten. She explained that a “health equity metric” will be used to determine how quickly a county may advance to further reopening.
She said the metric will be based on the disparity between the least- and most-sick areas, and will be further explained by the California Department of Public Health on Monday.
Out of 10,615 test results received in the past day, 3.3% were positive, and the 14-day rolling average of positive cases remained at 2.9%.
The latest victims of COVID-19 were three women and four men ranging in age from the late 60s to late 80s. All had underlying medical conditions.
Nine new community outbreaks were reported — three in businesses, three in restaurants or bars, and one each in a barbershop, grocery and food processing setting — for a total 15 over the past week.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher commended San Diegans for being diligent in preventing infection, noting that COVID has already killed nine times more people in the United States than the flu did in all of 2019.
“Even if the federal government is going to have an erratic and inconsistent message, here in San Diego County our message is clear,” he said. “That means wearing a mask, avoiding large indoor gatherings, staying home if you’re sick, and physically distancing.”
Since the first local case in March, there have been 1,132,501 tests performed in San Diego County, resulting in 49,175 cases of the coronavirus and 813 deaths.
