REGION — The COVID-19 death toll in San Diego County neared four dozen Monday, with two new fatalities reported, raising the county total to 47. Health officials also announced 43 new cases of the virus Monday, raising the total to 1,847.
Both new deaths were females, one in her late 90s, the other aged 100.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher reported Monday that 13 homeless individuals in the county were among those who have tested positive for COVID-19 — to date, no temporary residents of the San Diego Convention Center have tested positive.
The number of hospitalizations grew from 415 to 420, and the number of patients in intensive care rose from 152 to 156. The county estimates 556 positive-testing individuals have recovered.
The trends over the weekend appeared favorable, with slow growth and few additional deaths, but health officials warned against reading too much into the figures. Dr. Eric McDonald, the county’s director of the epidemiology branch, said the public should be looking at long-term trends, and those trends are still increasing.
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department said Monday that a county jail inmate who tested positive for COVID-19 was released on bail, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
A total of 69 inmates have been tested for the virus, and two inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the newspaper.
Sheriff’s officials have been releasing lower-risk inmates in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. So far, about 1,000 people have been released from jail in recent weeks.
A total of five Sheriff’s Department employees have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of March.
Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, announced Monday that nearly two dozen San Diego County colleges and universities will split $137 million in federal funding to help them subsist during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At least $71 million of the funding will go to students in the form of emergency cash grants to help them pay for housing, food and other essentials, Davis said.
A sailor died Monday of COVID-19-related complications after contracting the virus while aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy announced.
The sailor, whose name was withheld pending family notification, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 30 and was placed in an isolation house on Naval Base Guam along with four other USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors, according to the Navy.
On Thursday morning, the sailor was found unresponsive during a daily medical check and was moved to the intensive care unit at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, where his condition worsened and he was pronounced dead Monday morning, according to the Navy.
On Sunday, the Navy announced 35 new COVID-19 cases among sailors assigned to the Roosevelt, which is currently docked in Guam, bringing the number of positive cases on the ship to 585.
As of Saturday, 92% of the ship’s crew members have been tested for COVID-19 and 3,696 sailors have been moved ashore, according to the Navy.
USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier was relieved of his duties April 2, three days after a letter he wrote asking for a stronger response to the coronavirus outbreak on the ship was published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Crozier has since tested positive for COVID-19.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who fired Crozier, submitted his resignation last Monday after a recording surfaced of him addressing the crew over the ship’s PA system, in which he called Crozier’s actions “a betrayal” and said he believed the captain either purposefully sent the letter to unauthorized parties or must have been “too naive or too stupid” to realize the import of his actions.
