San Diego County’s COVID-19 numbers are going in the right direction, although the county has reported 539 new virus infections and 57 deaths, according to the county’s most recent reports.
San Diego County supervisor Nathan Fletcher said on Wednesday that a problem in the vaccine supply chain last weekend shows how small the margins are for delays and system errors. The winter storm that hit much of the country has also hampered some vaccination visits.
Due to delays in vaccine shipments to San Diego, the county is rescheduling approximately 1,000 appointments for the first dose at its locations on Thursday and Friday. Those affected are being notified that they will be rescheduled for next week.
Of the 765,500 doses of vaccine the county received, 663,194 were administered, more than 3,000 awaiting processing and 98,000 are counted for consultations.
“You can see that we are running very, very dry,” said Fletcher.
The county is reserving a portion of the COVID-19 vaccination appointments available each day for a pilot project that aims to equitably distribute the new coronavirus vaccine.
Vaccine Equity Scheduling Assistance reserves appointments for people who are in the currently eligible groups and at high risk of COVID-19 complications.
“We need to make sure that communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 have easier access to the vaccine,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, a county public health officer. “This project is making it easier for qualified people to consult and get vaccinated”.
The county now has five vaccine overpowers and 15 smaller neighborhood distribution locations, according to the county Health and Human Services Agency. Despite supply chain problems, Fletcher said the county has allocated its vaccines efficiently enough that he believes teachers, food and agriculture officials and police will be able to start receiving vaccines as early as the first week of March.
In addition, HHSA anticipates that it will complete vaccinations at the county’s qualified nursing facilities this week, releasing mobile teams to deliver more vaccines across the county. In total, about 17.6% of the municipality’s population over 16 years old received at least one dose of the vaccine and 5% is fully inoculated.
Wednesday’s data has increased the number of COVID-19 infections to 254,180 since the pandemic began, while the death toll has increased to 3,099.
The 57 deaths – one of the highest daily death rates locally – are a reminder of the deadly severity of the pandemic, Fletcher said, but are probably the result of the delayed effects of a significant increase in cases in December and January.
The number of hospitalizations decreased in just four patients to 804, while intensive care patients decreased by 10 to 256 compared to Tuesday’s figures. There are 57 ICU beds available in the county.
Of the 13,771 tests reported on Wednesday, 4% returned positive, bringing the average continuous positive test from 14 days to 5.5%.
On Tuesday, the county’s rate of new cases dropped enough to allow primary schools to resume face-to-face education for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students.
According to the state’s weekly COVID-19 update, the San Diego County adjusted case rate is 22.2 cases per 100,000 residents. The state allows primary schools to reopen as soon as counties reach an adjusted average rate of new daily cases of 25 per 100,000 residents.
Face-to-face classes cannot be resumed from grades 7 through 12 until the county’s new COVID-19 case rate drops to seven per 100,000 residents.
The percentage of positivity for the seven-day San Diego County test is 6.4%, placing the county in the red layer of the four-tier state reopening plan for this metric. The state uses the worst metric in each county – in this case, the adjusted case rate – and assigns counties at that level.
The county’s health equity metric, which analyzes the test’s positivity for areas with the lowest health conditions, is 9.7% and is in the purple layer. This metric does not move counties to more restrictive layers, but it is necessary to move to a less restrictive layer.
Updated at 11:30 am on February 18, 2021
–City news service
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