San Diego County public health officials reported a record 3,611 COVID-19 infections and 14 deaths Friday as the county seeks to appeal a judge's ruling allowing for restaurants to resume operations.
The cases surpass the previous record set one week ago — 2,867 last Friday — by 744 new cases. It marks the first time the number of daily infections has surpassed 3,000 as well as the 18th consecutive day with more than 1,000 cases and the 11th day overall with more than 2,000 new cases.
The top four-highest daily cases have all occurred in the past seven days, with Wednesday's 2,807 cases and Thursday's 2,604.
San Diego County's cumulative case total has risen to 120,463 and the death toll has risen to 1,253.
A jump of 46 hospitalizations Friday set a record with 1,218 COVID-19- positive patients hospitalized locally. An additional 305 COVID-19 patients are in ICUs -- also a record.
The county's hospitals have 16% of their ICU beds available, unchanged since Tuesday, which is at odds with the state estimate that the Southern California region's ICU beds are entirely full.
Where the discrepancy comes from is unclear.
In the San Joaquin Valley, ICU beds are said to also be full. In Greater Sacramento, the estimate is 14.5% of ICU beds available; in the Bay Area, it's 12.8%.
Only Northern California remains outside the Gov. Gavin Newsom- directed stay-at-home order with 21% of ICU beds available. That order applies to regions with fewer than 15% ICU beds remaining.
San Diego County has seen a 220% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the past 30 days and a 155% increase in ICU patients in the same time frame.
The previous peak in hospitalizations — in mid-July — topped out at about 400 patients.
Supervisor Greg Cox on Wednesday asked for patience from county residents, as more vaccines are on the way.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now approved a vaccine developed by Moderna to join the 28,275 Pfizer vaccines already in the region available for civilian acute healthcare workers.
San Diego County is home to 82,623 health care workers toiling in hospital or psychiatric facilities, 39,755 of whom are considered "highest risk" and will first receive vaccines.
The 28,000-plus vaccines will cover about 72% of those slated to be inoculated until more vaccines arrive in California.
Four new community outbreaks were reported Friday, with 32 in the past week. 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 two weeks.
