23 new coronavirus cases in Fallbrook again

The Fallbrook area is reporting 520 coronavirus cases as of Sept. 21, an increase of 23 cases over last week – the exact same increase in cases from the week before that.

More than 1% of the population of the 92028 ZIP code has tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. 92028 includes Fallbrook as well as Rainbow and De Luz.

The 92028 ZIP code currently has San Diego County’s 35th highest rate of coronavirus infections per 100,000 people, as well as the 43rd lowest rate in the county.

Nearby Bonsall’s 92003 ZIP code reported 43 coronavirus cases as of Sept. 21, the same as last week – marking the second week in a row Bonsall has not seen an increase in cases. As has been the case since the start of the pandemic, San Diego County cannot estimate an infection rate for Bonsall because of the low number of cases and low population.

Meanwhile, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors was planning after press time Sept. 21 to consider taking legal action against the state to prevent potentially sliding back into the most restrictive tier on Sept. 22.

The Board met Sept. 17 to discuss their options after Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a county effort to discount the more than 700 positive tests recorded by San Diego State University since the semester began, the day before the meeting.

The supervisors did not make a decision on taking legal action against

the state in their meeting Sept. 17, but Supervisor Greg Cox said the board will meet in closed-session Sept. 21 after receiving more information, “to consider any further actions.”

County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher was vague about the closed meeting Sept. 17 but urged caution.

“In general, I believe we should be fighting COVID-19 and not the state of California,” he said. “We do not yet know what our case rate will be next Tuesday and will have to evaluate that number in order to understand any possible impact.”

The county was expected to find out Sept. 22, after Village News’ press time, if it will slip back to the purple tier of the state's coronavirus reopening roadmap. If so, it would likely shutter indoor operations for restaurants, movie theaters, houses of worship and gyms, limit retail businesses to just 25% capacity and have major impacts on indoor business for most other industries until the county can improve its numbers.

Should the county be placed in that tier, it would have to wait a minimum of three weeks before moving back to less restrictive tiers.

If state data announced Sept. 22 shows the county has a case rate higher than 7, it could be moved into the purple tier – the most restrictive level.

However, if the numbers from the university were removed from the equation, San Diego County would suddenly drop below the mark to remain in the red tier.

As of 6 p.m. Sept. 19, SDSU had reported 819 confirmed cases and 32 probable cases, bringing the total number of cases to 851. The university has not received any reports of faculty or staff who have tested positive, SDSU health officials said, nor have any cases been traced to classroom or research settings.

San Diego County health officials reported 284 new COVID-19 infections and no new deaths on Sept. 20, raising the region's totals to 44,577 cases with the death toll remaining at 760.

Of the 9,097 tests reported on Sept. 19, 3% returned positive, bringing the 14-day rolling average of positive tests to 3.6%.

The seven-day daily average of tests is 8,375.

Of the total positive cases reported as of Sept. 20, 3,404 – or 7.6% – required hospitalization and 800 – or 1.8% – had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.

One new community outbreak in a grocery business was confirmed this weekend. From Sept. 13-19, 21 community outbreaks were confirmed.

The number of community outbreaks remains above the trigger of seven or more in seven days. A community setting outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households over the past 14 days.

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].

City News Service contributed to this report.