The coronavirus pandemic has spread rapidly across the world with the United States leading in the total number of positive cases and deaths.
Here in California, many of the state’s hospitals are now running out of capacity to treat the severest cases. Most California residents remain under a stay-at-home order because of dwindling intensive care unit capacity where they live.
The massive rise in infections began in October and is being blamed largely on people ignoring safety measures and socializing with others. More recently, health officials said they’ve seen cases stemming from gatherings during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Here in San Diego County, more than 100,000 people have tested positive for the virus and more than 1,200 people have died.
To help better see the spread of the virus in San Diego County, KPBS has compiled COVID-19 data into the following visualizations:
Hospitals have been pushed to the breaking point in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge. Here in California, the crisis is getting worse, despite a nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and with the release of a second vaccine on the way.
Intensive care unit capacity is at less than 1% in many California counties.
In the 11-county Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, available ICU capacity dropped to 0% on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.
Chart: New COVID-19 Cases And Deaths Over Time
KPBS has mapped out COVID-19 cases across the regions using San Diego County data, which gets updated daily.
The data represents the residence of the person who was infected, not the site of transmission. County health officials have frequently stressed that they don't want the public to read too much into the data because the numbers only represent a portion of actual COVID-19 cases.
