Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Virus explodes into Fallbrook

On May 4, Fallbrook's ZIP code (92028) enjoyed the lowest rate of accumulated COVID-19 cases of any ZIP code in the county, as reported by the HHSA website's daily updated "COVID-19 Summary of Cases By ZIP code."

At that time, Fallbrook had held to just 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 for over a week, which is 24.9 cases per 100,000 residents. Then disaster struck.

A week later, we find that the number of confirmed cases here in this town has jumped 50% to 18 confirmed sufferers of the virus among our residents. What are we doing wrong? Are we forgetting to wash our hands when we remove our masks?

Other nearby ZIP codes experienced no newly confirmed cases during that same week: 92003 (Bonsall); 92007 (Cardiff); 92008, 10 & 11 (all Carlsbad); 92059 (Pala) and 92061 (Pauma Valley).

If any of you readers know of any factors that may have contributed to any of these six new cases here, I invite you to share that information in this forum so that we all might better get a handle on keeping this disease under control.

Let me start the process by sharing the following information: I understand that one of those six new cases is that of longtime Fallbrook resident Bill Holtz, who now needs our prayers. He had been reportedly hospitalized at Palomar Hospital for over a week as he recovered from a heart attack.

After being back home for just three days, he suddenly felt very ill, so he went back to the hospital where it was confirmed that he had contracted the virus. Since it takes at least five days after infection for symptoms to show up, it can be concluded that Bill did not pick up the virus here in Fallbrook. Instead, he must have inadvertently brought it here from the hospital.

If one person contracts the virus at that location, there could be more. In addition to Fallbrook, these ZIP codes each also had their number of confirmed cases jump by over 33% this past week: 92009 (East Carlsbad), 92020 & 92021 (El Cajon), 92025 (South Escondido), 92026 (North Escondido – the rate here more than doubled this past week), 92056, (Tri-City), 92057 (San Luis Rey), 92058 (Camp Pendleton), 92082 (Valley Center) and 92083 & 84 (Vista).

Notice that each of those areas is fairly close to the hospital in question. I wonder…

Jeffery Jones

 

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