REGION — San Diego County is expected to be placed on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list today, which could lead to closures or new restrictions on businesses following the Fourth of July weekend.
County health officials said the rate of COVID-19 cases in the region surpassed the state’s threshold of no more than 100 positive cases per every 100,000 residents. The county reported a rate of 1112.8 positive cases per 100,000 residents Thursday, a number that increased from 103.8 per 100,000 just three days prior.
If the numbers don’t improve, several businesses could be forced to change the way they do business indoors by as early as Tuesday, and restrictions would remain in place for a minimum of three weeks. Businesses affected include restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, cardrooms, family entertainment centers, museums and zoos.
The potential restrictions follow the county’s recent self-imposed closure of bars and a newly instituted 10 p.m. curfew for local eateries.
Beaches remain open in San Diego County this weekend amid beach closures across Southern California and a record 584 new, local cases reported Thursday. Beach parking lots will be closed today, Saturday and Sunday, as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the lots would be closed statewide during the holiday weekend.
The number of local cases has now reached 15,207, and the 584 cases reported Thursday is the sixth time in a week the number of daily cases have been more than 400. Of the 8,510 tests reported Thursday, 7% returned positive. The 14-day rolling average of positive tests is 4.9%.
An additional five people have died from COVID-19, raising the county’s total to 377. These people — three men and two women — died between June 26 and July 1 and ranged in age from 51 to 93. All had underlying health conditions.
A record 10 community outbreaks were also reported Thursday, raising the one-week count to 22, well over the limit of seven San Diego County set for itself. Eight of the new outbreaks — defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households — were reported in restaurants and bars. One was traced to a grocery store and one in a business. Of the week’s 22 outbreaks, 14 were traced to restaurants or bars.
While cases have spiked in San Diego County, it was the sole county in Southern California not named as on the monitoring list by Newsom on Wednesday. The 19 counties on Newsom’s list were ordered to halt much of their indoor business activity for at least three weeks.
“We’re the only Southern California county not forced to take action by the governor,” County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Wednesday. “I think that is partly because of proactive steps we took before other counties.”
Fletcher’s colleague on the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, voiced her opposition Thursday to the dialed-back reopenings.
“On Day 109 of this pandemic, I think it is time for a new strategy,” she said in a statement. “We have made significant changes to the world around us, we have built capacity in our healthcare system, adapted to masks and with some exceptions, done everything that has been asked of us and the virus rages on. We need to protect the most vulnerable in our population, but we also cannot continue to ‘toggle’ our economy. These do not and cannot continue to be mutually exclusive. We can no more turn our economy on and off, than we can turn this virus on and off. We need to figure out a way to live with both. That is the new normal.”
