I am happy to report that COVID-19 cases continue to decrease, and the measures we track are looking better and better, building on a trend that started a couple of weeks ago. Statewide we were at a 13.9% positivity rate a month ago and are at 4.8% today. Hospitalizations statewide saw a 34% decrease in the past 14 days. There’s been a 28% decrease in COVID-19 ICU cases during this same time period.
This is all great news, but it’s still tempered by uncertainty about new variants. At the governor’s news conference yesterday, he reported that the first cases of the South African variant have now been detected in California. Both are in the Bay Area. This is not unexpected, but it does raise the stakes in the fight against COVID-19. People are concerned about this variant because vaccines may not be as effective against it. Health experts don’t think the South African variant causes more serious illness.
San Diego continues to be a main hot spot for the U.K. variant, which is much more contagious than the original strain.
Vaccine progress
All of this makes the race to get people vaccinated all the more urgent. The governor reported the following updates yesterday:
Over 5 million people have been vaccinated in California so far
The state is getting about 1 million doses a week
No vaccines are being stockpiled; all are being distributed as they come in
Supplies are expected to increase starting in March
Local vaccines
More and more locations are coming online here in San Diego County, far more than the supply of vaccines currently supports. But, as supplies increase, our region will have the infrastructure in place to greatly increase the administration of vaccines. We’ve updated the city’s website with some additional links, including local pharmacies now offering vaccine appointments and Tri City Medical Center. The county is expected to bring on the San Diego Fairgrounds “supercenter” site soon as well.
Making appointments
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting our fire chief gave a great overview of how to find out about eligibility and sign up for a vaccination appointment. You can see the presentation here (starts about 15 minutes in). The short version is this:
