SAN DIEGO — Public-health officials in San Diego County reported 1,598 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and 55 additional deaths from the disease. There have been 242,616 coronavirus cases and 2,738 deaths from the disease in San Diego County since the pandemic started, according to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency.
There were 968 new cases reported Wednesday by and 926 Tuesday following 63 consecutive days with more than 1,000 new cases. The "vaccination superstation" at Petco Park administered its 100,000th dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher announced.
"Every dose of the COVID-19 vaccine put in someone's arm is a reason to celebrate," Fletcher said.
"The 100,000th dose administered at this one site is special because this was not only our first superstation, but the first one in the state of California. Today, we have 19 sites administering vaccines and saving lives. Vaccines give us the best chance to get our lives back on track."
San Diego County has the capacity to administer more than 20,000 vaccines daily and expects to raise that to 30,000 next week, Fletcher said, but currently only has the supplies to administer around 10,000 vaccines a day.
San Diego County coronavirus-inoculation sites have received 586,325 doses of vaccine and administered 357,507 doses, according to the Health and Human Services Agency,
Around 2% of the population over the age of 16 is fully vaccinated.
There are 40 available staffed ICU beds in San Diego County, but Fletcher said that number isn't likely to increase any time soon. Due to filling hospital beds over the last several months, many non-emergency surgeries and procedures were postponed. Hospitals are rushing to make those up now while COVID-19 beds become available.