San Diego County public health officials have reported 1,265 new COVID-19 infections Saturday and 35 deaths from the virus.
After Tuesday's case totals came in at 926, ending a 63-day streak with more than 1,000 cases, it appeared the pandemic was ebbing. On Wednesday, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported 968 new cases but 1,598 cases Thursday.
Saturday's report pushed the aggregate coronavirus numbers in the county to 245,334 cases and 2,812 deaths from the disease since the pandemic started.
Of the 24,279 tests reported Saturday, 5% returned positive, nudging the 14-day rolling average up slightly to 7.7% from Thursday's 7.5%. As recently as Jan. 22, the percentage was more than 10%.
The HHSA reported 1,183 patients with COVID-19 in county hospitals, 353 of whom were in intensive care units, a decrease of nearly 400 hospitalized people from two weeks ago and 621 fewer than the record 1,804 patients set Jan. 12.
ICU patients with COVID-19 decreased by 95 in that two-week window. There are 42 available, staffed ICU beds in the county.
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The county health agency reported 10 new community outbreaks Friday, bringing the total in the past week to 73, tied to 394 cases.
As an increasing number of San Diegans get vaccinated against COVID- 19, the HHSA is reminding the public that it is too soon to stop using face coverings and social distancing.
While the two FDA-approved vaccines have shown promising results in clinical trials, it takes several weeks for the immunizations to become fully effective. It is unknown whether a vaccinated person could potentially catch and spread COVID-19 to someone who has not been vaccinated.
Nearly 12% of San Diegans age 16 and over have received at least one of the two shots required to develop antibody protection against the virus. Around 2.2% of the population over the age of 16 is fully vaccinated.
San Diego County coronavirus-inoculation sites have received 586,225 doses of vaccine and administered 411,565 doses, according to the HHSA.
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.
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.
