SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — San Diego County continued making progress toward lowering its coronavirus case rates and improving how quickly it is tracing confirmed cases. However, it is still several weeks away from any new reopenings under state guidance.
On Wednesday, the county reported a case rate of 105.7 per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate since July 1 and before the county went on the state’s “watch list.” It needs to have a rate of 100 per 100,000 or lower for 14 consecutive days before it can make changes to the public health order.
“The results over the past seven days, minus the three-day lag, are promising and it is really thanks to everyone in San Diego that has done their part to change this metric. We want everyone to keep up the great work. Hopefully next week we’ll see that metric normalize,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H, the county’s public health officer.
The county has also vastly improved how quickly it is opening trace investigations. It has a goal of opening 90% of cases within 24 hours of receiving a positive result. On July 18 the county was tracing just 7% of these cases. However, it improved to 73% on Wednesday.
“This is very good news. We, as of [Tuesday], are not backlogged with any of our case investigation assignments. This is definitely, and indeed, a positive finding,” said Wooten.
A partnership between the county and South Bay Community Services and its partners is working to perform more outreach in the Latino community, especially among Spanish-speaking residents. The county has been criticized for not hiring enough Latino tracers. The Chicano Federation had noted the tracers reflect the diversity of the county, but the virus is hitting the Latinos harder than people from most other races or ethnicities.
SBCS is using community health workers, known as “promotores” in Spanish. They are traditionally people who are well-known and trusted within their community who can disseminate factual information after a person tests positive, follow-up on their care and help connect them to resources.
“They are deeply embedded in the communities,” explained Mauricio Torre, Vice President of Programs and Operations for South Bay Community Services. “Because these resident leaders are familiar to them, they’re more apt to pay attention, to listen and to engage.”
Latest COVID-19 numbers in San Diego
San Diego County health officials reported 348 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths on Wednesday, raising the county's totals to 30,864 cases and 578 deaths.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Wednesday that California had reported issues with private labs and reporting, meaning some additional cases might be retroactively added to both local and statewide case totals in coming weeks.
Of the total positive cases, 2,655 -- or 8.6% -- required hospitalization and 666 -- or 2.2% -- were admitted to an intensive care unit. Officials estimate more than 24,000 people have recovered from the virus.
The rate of the population testing positive has dropped to 105.7 per 100,000 people. The state's goal is to be below 100 per 100,000. One week ago the rate was 134.4 per 100,000 -- a trend which could potentially get San Diego County off the state's watch list.
The county reported 6,981 tests Wednesday, 5% of which returned positive. The 14-day running average is 5.3% and the county has recorded 631,968 total tests since March.
Additionally, the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 continues to trend downward, with 392 in regional hospitals including 125 in intensive care units.
Enforcing public health orders in San Diego
The county is also quickly ramping up its enforcement effort. Supervisors approved adding 22 people to help investigate and enforce the public health order. Previously, only 13 people worked in the program.
“We’ll have to triage the complaints as they come in and assess what is the most egregious for those first categories and then the second will be reserved for those that are not allowed to be open,” explained Supervisor Nathan Fletcher. “They will get to as many as they can working, hopefully, in cooperation and coordination with local jurisdictions. It’s hard to speculate on how many places they will get to each day.”
Funding for the additional enforcement personnel was secured for six months. It coincides with the county opening a new, 24/7 hotline to take violation reports. It can be reached at 858-694-2900.
However, supervisors stressed the team will primarily focus on the most egregious violators.
“The goal will be to relay the complaint, learn about their operation and seek to determine if there is a violation. We will conduct site visits and continue to seek voluntary compliance but discuss enforcement options,” said Supervisor Greg Cox.
The county continues to see confirmed community outbreaks in restaurants and restaurant/bar settings despite state requirements that they only serve customers outside. The two sectors made up half of all the community outbreaks in July. Data does not distinguish whether the cases represent customers or employees. However, HHSA has noted because the virus is so widespread it may be a coincidence that some of these people visited the same place.
The additional enforcement staff will investigate instances where industries are not abiding by state guidelines.
“This staff is dedicated to investigating entities that are not allowed to be open under the public health orders,” said Fletcher. “This would be someone like [an owner of a] bar that does not serve food.”
Five additional community outbreaks were reported Wednesday, bringing the number of community outbreaks in the county in the past week to 30. The outbreaks were reported in a preschool, a restaurant/bar setting, a faith-based organization and two in businesses.
There have been 164 community outbreaks reported since stay-at-home orders in March, with 1,220 cases and 11 deaths linked. In skilled nursing facilities, 145 deaths have been linked to 59 outbreaks.
An outbreak is considered to have occurred if three or more people from different households contract COVID-19 from one location.