With the school year in its first weeks or about to begin, San Diego County public health officials Friday encouraged children to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The county's latest numbers show that 85.5% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have received at least one dose of a vaccine, compared to 47.3% for children between 5 and 11 and just 9.1% for children six months to 4 years old.
Comparatively, 89.5% of San Diegans between 18 and 64 years old have received at least one COVID-19 dose. The percentage is even higher for people over 65 years of age: 99.9%.
"Children should be vaccinated to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19," said Dr. Wilma J. Wooten, county public health officer. "While it's true that the virus has not been as severe in children, they can still develop serious complications from COVID-19."
COVID-19 vaccines are recommended for everyone 6 months and older. More than 3.01 million or 90.1% of San Diegans age 6 months and older are at least partially vaccinated. More than 2.66 million or 79.7% are fully vaccinated. A total of 1,442,309 or 58.9% of 2,447,274 eligible San Diegans have received a booster.
The number of people in San Diego County hospitalized with COVID-19 has decreased by 10 to 256, according to the latest state data. This is down from a summer peak of 465 on July 22.
The number of those patients in intensive care as of Friday remained steady at 24 and the number of available hospital beds decreased by seven to 224.
The county Health and Human Services Agency reported 844 new infections and three additional deaths linked to the virus in its most recent data, increasing the county's cumulative counts to 908,654 cases and 5,456 deaths since the pandemic began. A total of 4,744 cases were reported in the past week compared to 5,285 infections identified the previous week.
San Diego County's case rate per 100,000 residents 12 years of age and older is 32.10 for people fully vaccinated and boosted, 22.32 for fully vaccinated people and 67.19 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.
The HHSA updates data on Monday and Thursday nights.
