SAN DIEGO — San Diego County was placed on the state's COVID-19 monitoring list Friday, which could lead to closures or new restrictions on businesses following the Fourth of July weekend.
San Diego County was the final county in southern California to be place on the state's monitoring list after it saw a steady rise in daily coronavirus cases.
County health officials said the rate of COVID-19 cases in the region surpassed the state's threshold of no more than 100 positive cases per 100,000 residents. The county reported a rate of 112.8 positive cases per 100,000 residents Thursday, a number that has increased from 103.8 per 100,000 just three days prior.
Now on the state's monitoring list, several businesses could be forced to change the way they do business indoors by as early as Tuesday, and restrictions would remain in place for a minimum of three weeks. Businesses affected include restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, cardrooms, family entertainment centers, museums and zoos.
"It kind of worries you, you know," said Mike Soltan, who has owned and run Kojack's diner in Mission Beach for nearly 35 years
He understands the need to control the spread of Coronavirus, but is also concerned about the impact of these possible new rules.
"This is going to be hard if they restrict it again," he added. "I don't know how people are going to cope with that."
The potential restrictions follow the county's recent self-imposed closure of bars and a newly instituted 10 p.m. curfew for local eateries.
Beaches remain open in San Diego County this weekend amid beach closures across southern California. Beach parking lots will be closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement that the lots would be closed statewide during the holiday weekend.
Friday, lifeguard officials from Encinitas and Del Mar reported beach population estimates that were on par with or greater than populations from years past.
Encinitas Marine Safety Captain Larry Giles reported large crowds for the start of the holiday weekend.
"Our beach population today is about 30% to 35% more than it was the same day last year," Giles said.
He said that not all beachgoers are maintaining social distance. He called the beach population a "mixed bag" of those remaining socially distant and those who are not.
The number of local cases has now reached 15,696, and the 489 cases reported Friday is the sixth time in a week the number of daily cases have been more than 400. Of the 7,307 tests reported Friday, 7% returned positive. The 14- day rolling average of positive tests is 5.3%.
An additional 10 people -- six women and four men -- have died from COVID-19, raising the county's total to 387. All of the them had underlying conditions and ranged in ages from mid-50s to late 90s.
No new community outbreaks were reported Friday, lowering the one-week count to 21. The county is still well over the limit of seven, which San Diego County set for itself.