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San Diego County now in red tier of coronavirus reopening plan

Case rates in Fallbrook and Bonsall slightly higher than last week’s reported numbers but still low

With San Diego County now in the red tier of the state’s coronavirus reopening plan, businesses including restaurants, gyms and movie theaters have been able to resume indoor operations, albeit with capacity limits and masking requirements.

Beginning Wednesday, March 17, restaurants and movie theaters were allowed to operate indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people – whichever is fewer – according to the county. Gyms were allowed to reopen at 10% capacity, while museums, zoos and aquariums were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity and retail stores were allowed to increase indoor capacity to 50%.

Between Monday, March 15 and Sunday, March 21, there were a total of 2,257 new coronavirus cases and 42 new coronavirus deaths reported in San Diego County.

In the Fallbrook area, the 92028 ZIP code was showing a coronavirus case rate of 6.7 per 100,000 as of the week of Feb. 28 – March 6, the most recent week for which information is available, marginally higher than the 6.4 per 100,000 reported the week prior, Feb. 21-27. The 92028 ZIP code showed 23 new coronavirus cases during Feb. 28 – March 6, about the same as Feb. 21-27.

The county combines Bonsall’s 92003 ZIP code with Vista; the combined area had a case rate of 6.4 per 100,000 between Feb. 28 – March 6, also slightly higher than the previous week, when it had a reported case rate of 5.6 per 100,000. The area reported 22 new coronavirus cases during Feb. 28 – March 6, which was lower than the 35 new cases during Feb. 21-27.

There have been a total of 3,643 reported coronavirus cases in 92028, and 4,995 in the Bonsall-Vista jurisdiction, since the start of the pandemic last March.

San Diego County health officials on March 21 reported 797,640 – or 29.7% of county residents over the age of 16 – have received at least one dose of the two-shot vaccines and 495,175 people – or 18.4% – have been fully vaccinated.

Nearly 1.44 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the region and more than 1.4 million have been logged as administered. This number includes both county residents and those who work in San Diego County.

Meanwhile, the county's first and largest vaccination super site at Petco Park, which administered more than 200,000 Moderna vaccines, has closed in preparation for Padres opening day.

The Petco Park site has closed multiple times due to lack of vaccines, but with the Padres preparing for opening day, its closure was inevitable.

The county, the city of San Diego, UC San Diego and the Padres opened the superstation on Jan. 11. Five other superstations are operating in the county, including two in North County – at California State University San Marcos and in Del Mar, even as the last one faces supply issues of its own.

Scripps Health, which runs the Del Mar site, announced Friday, March 19 the superstation will be closed on March 27 and 28, due to the low number of COVID- 19 vaccine doses delivered.

Patients who have appointments scheduled for those days will be rescheduled automatically through the MyTurn online appointment system.

San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said more vaccines are on the way – 10% more next week than this week, in this case – but the supply still is not keeping up with demand. Nevertheless, the 30 vaccinations sites in the county had room to expand.

"We are well positioned," Fletcher said. "We can do significantly more doses each day than we are doing."

Fletcher said the county would like to cooperate with UCSD on vaccine sites in the future, indicating a future one is expected at the San Diego Convention Center once the supply of vaccines increases and occupancy at the other several dozen sites begins to fill.

On Friday, March 19, the county's public health officer, Dr. Wilma Wooten, received the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

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

City News Service contributed to this report.

 

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