San Diego County Hits Milestone to Get Off State Watch List
San Diego local officials said that the county has finally reached the metric that allows it to be removed from the state watch list, but confirmation is still pending.
For the third consecutive day, San Diego recorded a 14-day average rate of less than 100 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents. It also reported a rate of 96.3 on Friday, 98.3 on Thursday, and 94.1 on Wednesday, reported Los Angeles Times.
According to ABC 10, San Diego said it would have to review the data before the county can be completely removed from the watchlist.
The watch list removal signals that there are renewed efforts to contain the spread of the virus, which are actually paying off.
San Diego has to maintain its new status for 14 more consecutive days to let K-12 schools reopen.
A San Diego spokesperson told the San Diego Union-Tribune that health officials are hoping to hear from the state about a possible timeline for listing from the watch list by the end of the weekend.
Businesses to Stay Closed
While schools are getting reconsidered for reopening, businesses will not yet be allowed to do so. The state has to provide further guidance first, county officials said Friday.
This leaves many local businesses still dealing with uncertainty.
Pandemic guidelines meant breweries and other places in the county had to shut down their indoor spaces. It has already happened twice this year, according to NBC San Diego.
While some businesses found ways to stay open through food trucks, others do not have the available space for outdoor dining and have to stay closed.
"It means a lot to us," Jack Collins, events coordinator at Societe Brewing, said. "We've been looking to state officials and public health officers to see what we should be doing."
Fewer Hospitalizations
The lower case rate is not the only good news that San Diego has seen lately. State officials reported Thursday that they saw 299 hospitalizations for COVID-19 that day.
That was the first time in more than a month that it has reported fewer than 300 cases.
Despite the Thursday case rate only one patient behind, it still encouraged the state overall. But community outbreaks still happened at much higher rates than the county's threshold for loosening health restrictions.
The "trigger" that the country has set for tighter public health restrictions was seven or more in seven days.
On Friday, there were four community outbreaks reported, bringing the seven-day total to 24. This is over three times more than the "trigger" in the county.
Two of the outbreaks took place at businesses: a restaurant with a bar and a food processing facility. The names of the sites still remain unknown.
It was not clarified last Friday that the county would change health restrictions if it was removed from the state's watchlist.
As San Diego awaits guidelines from Gov. Gavin Newsom, public health officials reported 279 new COVID-19 cases and four further deaths Friday. The county now has a total of 34,344 cases and 626 deaths.
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