SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — San Diego County narrowly avoided going into Tier 1, or purple, because of its coronavirus cases on Tuesday. A News 8 analysis of episode date data showed the county has had a rate above 7.0 for 13 consecutive days. On Tuesday, the state calculated the county’s rate at 6.9, just 0.1 short of the maximum allowed in Tier 2, or red. Had the county had a 14th day above 7.0 it would have forced the county into Tier 1 for at least 21 days.
The county was slightly penalized by the state for doing less testing than the median amount for a county of its size.
“We certainly see a county that is hovering around that threshold between red and purple, but we continue to have conversations about how we at the state can support San Diego,” said Mark Ghaly, Secretary of California Health and Human Services.
San Diego’s case rate increased after students at San Diego State University returned for the fall semester. More than 900 students and four faculty/staff members had since tested positive as of Tuesday. State rules require San Diego to include them in its case rate. However, some county supervisors argued they should be excluded.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom declined, and the state continued to include the students this week.
“We felt, not because of a personal or subjective opinion that we received after having conversations with San Diego, but that we built a process that was based on the concrete data that we received and that they should remain in the red tier, at least for this week,” said Ghaly.
On Tuesday, Supervisors Jim Desmond and Kristin Gaspar supported a proposal to send a letter to the state to ask for local control over when to reopen businesses. It later morphed into a motion of support for Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten, who is going through an adjudication process with the state, and encouraged her to work with the state to “revise the criteria to reflect the dynamics of the pandemic in San Diego County.” The motion passed 4-1 with Sup. Nathan Fletcher the only dissent.
“None of those things are the problem. The problem is COVID and it's the spread and so we really need to come together out of a sense of compassion, a sense of sacrifice to slow the spread,” said Fletcher. “We got elected to confront the realities of the situation we face. And sometimes that requires you to say things that maybe folks don't want to hear, but you believe in your heart is right.”
See below for commonly asked COVID-19 questions and answers:
Why is the state penalizing San Diego’s case rate?
The county performed below the median number of tests for a county of its size, so the rate was adjusted from 6.8 to 6.9.
Could we move into Tier 1 (purple) next week?
No. A county must have 14 consecutive days of a rate higher than 7.0 to move into Tier 1. The earliest we could move into Tier 1 would be Oct. 6.
How and when can we move into Tier 3 (orange)?
A county must have an adjusted case rate of 3.9 or lower for 21 consecutive days to move into a lower tier. It must also have a percentage of positive cases below 4.9%.
What changed for nail salons in California?
On Tuesday, the state allowed nail salons to reopen indoor operations statewide. Previously, nail salons located in a Tier 1 county had to operate outdoors. There is no change to San Diego County nail salons since they were permitted to operate indoors under our Tier 2 status.