County Reports 71 New COVID-19 Cases, 4 Deaths As Hospitalizations Drop

San Diego CA

26 May, 2021

3:51 PM

Description

By Elizabeth Ireland, Times of San Diego May 26, 2021 San Diego County public health officials reported 71 new COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths Tuesday, as hospitalizations from the virus dropped into double digits. Tuesday's data brings the county coronavirus case total to 279,785, while the death toll reached 3,753. Hospitalizations dipped to 98 from Monday's reported 112, and those in intensive care units declined to 33 from Monday's 38. Those numbers were 161 people hospitalized and 47 in ICU beds one month ago. There are 55 available, staffed ICU beds in the county. San Diego County remains in the "orange tier" of the state's color-coded reopening plan, with an adjusted case rate of 2.4 new cases per 100,000 people. To land in the yellow tier, the most permissive, the county would need to report an average of fewer than two new cases per 100,000 for two consecutive weeks. That is unlikely to happen before the state lifts most COVID-19-related limitations on June 15. Both the testing positivity percentage and health equity metric — a measure of a county's most vulnerable quartile — are low enough for San Diego County to fall in the yellow in those categories, with 1.5% and 1.8% respectively. Counties are sorted into their worst-performing tier. Of 7,767 tests reported Tuesday to the county's Health and Human Services Agency, 0.9% returned positive. The 14-day rolling average is 1%. The county on Tuesday reached 70% of its goal to vaccinate 75% of residents 12 and older, or 2,101,936 people. Around 1.47 million San Diego County residents are fully inoculated with either two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. A full list of available vaccination sites can be found at www.sandiegocounty.gov. — City News Service contributed to this article Times of San Diego is an independent online news site covering the San Diego metropolitan area. Our journalists report on politics, crime, business, sports, education, arts, the military and everyday life in San Diego. No subscription is required, and you can sign up for a free daily newsletter with a summary of the latest news.