You might have noticed my update arrived later than usual Tuesday. That’s partially because we wanted to wait until after the state’s noon news conference when we were expecting new guidelines to be announced (theme parks, personal services and professional sports).
The state also makes county tier status adjustments on Tuesdays. San Diego’s case rate has been very close to the trigger of more than seven per 100,000 in population for weeks now. On Tuesday, the updated map showing the latest reported case rate had San Diego County at 7.1, putting us in the purple tier for that one metric. But the excel spreadsheet on the California Department of Public Health website listed our case rate as 7, which ended up being the correct number.
Yesterday the County of San Diego explained the data discrepancy that almost put us on the path to a lower tier and more restrictions. Certain populations are excluded from official case numbers, including prison inmates. This is because inmates are not in the community and therefore will not contribute to an increased spread of COVID-19. The state had inadvertently included two COVID-positive inmates in the original count. Removing them made the difference.
Your actions saves lives
This is the most recent example of how every individual case makes a difference in our ability to keep our economy on the right path and resume as many of our normal activities as possible. When asked why case numbers have been on the upswing, the county health officer explained that when people slack off on precautions just a little and gather with people outside their own households, case numbers increase.
The return of students to in person instruction is being closely watched. So far there has been a slight increase in cases among those ages zero to 19. The chart below shows how school related outbreaks compare to total community setting outbreaks so far:
