SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — San Diego County reported 1,068 new COVID-19 infections and seven new deaths Friday, as one county official prepared for the possibility of vaccine booster shots.
"The FDA and CDC approval of the Pfizer vaccine booster for certain groups of people is another step in our fight against COVID," said County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher. "Once we receive final approval and guidance from the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup and the California Department of Public Health, our region will be well-prepared to provide Pfizer booster shots for those who are eligible.
"We expect this final approval in the coming days, and after that, eligible San Diegans should contact their local health care provider, pharmacy or our county-sponsored sites to receive the Pfizer booster," Fletcher said. "We want to emphasize, the booster is only for those groups outlined in pending final approval and will only be available for those who initially received the Pfizer vaccine."
Friday's numbers included batch tests and cases that would have been reported Sept. 14 through Wednesday, but were not due to a reporting error between the county and medical providers.
The data brought the county's cumulative totals to 353,112 cases and 4,046 fatalities since the pandemic began.
The number of COVID patients in county hospitals increased from 414 on Thursday to 418, with 137 of those patients in intensive care, according to state figures. Also on Thursday, Riverside County surpassed San Diego County for the second-most hospital patients in a county in the state. Los Angeles County has 956 COVID-19 hospital patients, more than double the next highest county.
A total of 27,290 new tests were logged, and the percentage of positive cases over the past seven days was 3.7%.
A total of 37 new community outbreaks were confirmed in the past seven days: 18 in grade school settings, four in business settings, four in restaurant/bar settings, three in daycare/preschool/childcare settings, two in government settings, one in a college/university setting, one in a construction setting, one in a grocery setting, one in a healthcare setting, one in restaurant setting and one in a retail setting.
San Diego County's case rate per 100,000 residents is 27.6 overall, 13.0 for fully vaccinated people and 47.3 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.
No-cost COVID-19 vaccines are widely available. They can be found at medical providers, pharmacies, community clinics and county public health centers for people who do not have a medical provider.
Nearly 4.72 million vaccine doses have been administered in San Diego County, with around 2.5 million -- or 87.7% of eligible county residents -- having received at least one dose. Fully vaccinated county residents now number more than 2.2 million, or around 78.2% of the county's eligible population.
A list of locations and more information is available at coronavirus- sd.com/vaccine.