San Diego County health officials have reported 2,490 new COVID-19 infections and 14 new deaths, marking 104,958 total cases and 1,151 deaths.
Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day that more than 2,000 new cases were reported, with 2,867 cases — a record — reported Friday, 2,050 reported Thursday and 2,104 Wednesday. It is also the 12th day with more than 1,000 new cases. It is just the sixth time the daily cases have crossed 2,000 — all of which have come in the past week.
Of 27,599 tests reported Saturday, 9% returned positive.
The number of hospitalizations also continued to rise, with 38 people hospitalized and four patients put in intensive care units. The COVID-19- related hospitalizations increased to 965 — 249 in ICUs. Since the pandemic began, 5,064 or 4.9% of cases have been hospitalized due to coronavirus, 1,098, or 1.1% have been sent to the ICU.
The county's hospitals have 16% of their ICU beds available, down from 21% Thursday. The state now estimates the ICU bed availability in the 11- county Southern California region at 6.2%, down from 7.7% on Thursday.
Of the 4,627 people hospitalized in the county, 20% are due to COVID- 19, and 44% of ICU patients. This compares to 7.7% and 20%, respectively, one month ago.
The county has seen a 199% increase in COVID-19 related hospitalizations in the past 30 days and a 148% increase in ICU patients in the same time frame. The previous peak in hospitalizations, in mid-July, topped out around 400 patients.
Seven new community outbreaks were reported Saturday. A community setting outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households over the past 14 days.
