County Coronavirus Cases Near 8,000, Deaths Rise To 288

Speaker 1: 00:00 Will recent protests lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases. That's one concern. Health officials have added to their list. They're monitoring for upticks of the virus. As the state continues, the process of reopening. There are some early signs that the number of positive tests for Corona virus may be increasing in San Diego. But so far, the numbers are very small. Local health officials are watching and waiting to see if the virus finds a new launching pad within protest grounds or shoppers and diners getting a reprieve from stay at home orders. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune, health reporter, Paul Sisson, and Paul, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. Don't bring us up to date. There has been a slight uptick in the positivity rate of COVID testing and the County. What do the latest figures show? Speaker 2: 00:50 Right. So, uh, yesterday we got the daily County COVID report and it showed 142 new cases. Uh, the previous day there were 124, uh, going back another day, one 28, going back and other day 73. So we've seen a bit of a jump in the last three reports, but not really so severe. Uh, just going back to May 29th, we saw a level of 145 new cases in a day. Uh, what's what's a little more interesting is that 4% of the cases that came back and were reported yesterday, uh, were positive. Uh, they're looking at the, uh, what they call the positive rate. Uh, the, the percentage of new tests test results that come in that are positive to give, give an overall sense of, uh, whether it's growing, you know, as you do more testing, you expect to see more positive cases. So you kind of need to have a numerator and denominator in there to really get a true sense of, of what's really going on. Uh, looking at the County chart, we haven't seen a single day, a 4% positive rate, uh, since May 20th, um, between those two dates yesterday and May 20th, it was always in a three to three or 2% range. Speaker 1: 02:02 Our local public health officials concerned by this slight increase. Speaker 2: 02:07 I talked to dr. Eric McDonald, the head of the county's epidemiology department last night. He indicated that he's watching it. He was saying, you know, I'm just going to need to see more than one day. We're going to need to see a longer pattern to really get too concerned. Speaker 1: 02:23 Well, the County announced the reopening of several parks, piers and boardwalks this week. It also unveiled a list of a dozen triggers that could lead to a second shut down, at least a partial shutdown. What are some of those triggers? Speaker 2: 02:37 Yeah, absolutely. Uh, there, there are three, uh, that they say are the ones that, that if any of them are triggered alone, uh, will cause them to immediately take stock. They may, they may pause re additional reopenings. They may roll back reopenings and, and so those, those three main triggers one is, uh, having, uh, more than seven, uh, outbreaks in the community, uh, that are outside of congregate, living, uh, facilities, such as skilled nursing, nursing homes, that type of thing. Uh, if they saw seven or more of those in a short period of time, that would be one, uh, that would, would bring a big halt. Another one is if, um, more than half of local hospitals have a fewer than 15 day supply of personal protective equipment on hand at any given moment that is another, uh, big red line, uh, all stop. Then they have a, most of these triggers are, are, um, specific categories where you actually have to hit two or more at the same time. Uh, and those are, are like seeing a 10% or more increase in the overall, um, rate of positive tests over a two week period, uh, or, or seeing a significant increase in the number of people locally, who are hospitalized. Speaker 1: 03:57 Now last night's protest against police brutality in San Diego was one of the largest local ones yet. How concerned are public health officials by the protests during this pandemic? Speaker 2: 04:09 They have pretty much thrown up their hands and said, you know, it's hard for us really to predict we are concerned about it. We see what the rest of you see on TV, where a lot of people are shoulder to shoulder, uh, yelling and, uh, and, and, uh, not wearing masks. Um, but they, they really haven't said much about how they would model that or how they would predict, uh, the number of cases that, uh, would come out of a situation like that. Uh, my sense is that they're just relying on the normal, um, healthcare infrastructure that has people coming forward to be tested when they have symptoms and then quickly tracing these folks down and finding out who they were around, uh, to kind of catch any, um, any incidences that are coming out of protest. Speaker 1: 04:56 And finally, Paul, is the County still pushing the governor for a local control to accelerate the region's reopening? Speaker 2: 05:04 Yeah, absolutely. Uh, they, they sent a letter recently to the governor asking him, asking for a little more leeway on, uh, on doing that. And they, uh, they, they certainly haven't rescinded it at this point. Um, it looks like they definitely do, uh, one wanted a little more control over the pace of what should reopen. And when, you know, I think one of the ones that's a very, at the top of the list, my mind, my little nephew, Zane who plays in a, uh, in a, in a local baseball league, I use sports, uh, are really, uh, you know, I think there's a lot of pressure out there to get those youth sports reopened in a safe way. I think that's why they're really reaching out and saying, you know, we feel like we have a plan. Here is our plan. We can do this safely. Let us do it when we want to. Speaker 1: 05:51 I have been speaking with San Diego union Tribune health reporter, Paul Sisson, Paul. Thanks. Thank you.