San Diego County reports more than 600 new COVID-19 cases for first time

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The number of daily COVID-19 cases in San Diego County crossed 600 for the first time Friday as the number of total cases rose to 22,489.

County public health officials reported a record 634 new cases and seven additional deaths, raising the death count to 472.

The 634 cases marks the fifth time in the past week county officials recorded more than 500 new cases in a day. Officials recorded more than 500 cases four times in the past week, with 508 on Saturday, 558 on Sunday, 539 on Tuesday and 559 Wednesday.

Bonsall reported 24 cases, Pala reported 22 and Fallbrook reported 197 cases of coronavirus on Friday.

Of the seven deaths, three were women and four were men. They died between July 7 and 15 and ranged in age from early 50s to late 90s. All had underlying health conditions.

The county recorded 9,224 tests Friday, 7% of which returned positive. The 14-day rolling average is now 6.1%. The state's target is below 8% positive test rate.

Two new community outbreaks were reported Friday, bringing the weekly total to 13 -- well above the county's metric of no more than seven in a one-week span. The new outbreaks were both reported in restaurants.

A community outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households.

Of the total positive cases, 2,154 -- or 9.6% -- have been hospitalized and 562 -- or 2.5% -- of cases have been admitted to an intensive care unit.

A new record of 153.2 of every 100,000 San Diegans are testing positive for the illness as of Thursday's data, well above the state's criterion of 100 per 100,000.

The last metric the county has failed to maintain is the percentage of cases that have been handled by a contact investigator within 24 hours of it being reported. There are more than 500 investigators employed by the county, and although 98% of all cases had been investigated in that time frame as recently as June 25, that rate has dropped to a dismal 37%. The county metric is to reach 71% of new cases in a day's span.