San Diego County reported 290 new COVID-19 infections and four deaths as public health officials Friday urged residents to get vaccinated for both coronavirus and influenza.
"Vaccines save lives and it's safe to receive both your COVID-19 vaccine and flu shot at the same time," said Dr. Wilma J. Wooten, county public health officer. "The vaccines are effective and everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated to avoid getting sick and spreading viruses to others."
Both vaccines can be administered during the same visit and it is not recommended to delay either shot, Wooten said. The CDC recommends people get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible and get a flu shot by the end of October.
The Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 booster is available for anyone age 12 and older. Bivalent boosters have not yet been authorized for children under the age of 12. Youths in that age group can get boosted with the previous version of the monovalent Pfizer vaccine.
The latest data increased the county's cumulative totals to 922,131 cases and 5,491 deaths.
The number of people in San Diego County hospitalized with COVID-19 decreased by 21 to 180, according to the latest state data.
Of those patients, 20 were in intensive care, with 261 ICU beds available.
A total of 2,402 COVID-19 cases were reported to the county in the past seven days, compared to 2,634 infections the previous week.
Close to 2.68 million or 80.1% of San Diegans received the primary series of one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines and are considered fully vaccinated. A total of 1,449,230 or 58.9% of 2,460,402 eligible San Diegans have received a booster.
The HHSA only reports COVID-19 data once a week — on Thursday nights.
