San Diego County public health officials Friday reported 1,228 new COVID-19 infections and two deaths.
Friday's data increased the county's cumulative totals to 337,627 cases and 3,911 deaths.
Nearly 4.56 million vaccine doses have been administered in the county, with 2.41 million — or 85.9% of San Diego County residents — having received at least one dose. Fully vaccinated county residents now number more than 2.11 million, or around 75.4% of the county's eligible population.
No-cost COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in the region. They can be found at medical providers, pharmacies, community clinics and county public health centers for people who do not have a medical provider. A list of locations and more information is available at coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine.
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San Diego County's case rate per 100,000 residents is 38.7 overall, as reported Wednesday, 15.2 for fully vaccinated people and 68 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.
A total of 19,783 tests were reported by the county Friday, and the percentage of new positive cases was 6.3%.
The number of county residents hospitalized with the virus increased by 1 to 671 from Thursday, according to state figures. One new patient was admitted to a local intensive care unit, increasing that number to 177.
The increasing numbers were cited in a letter written by UC San Diego researchers published Wednesday, which found that the effectiveness of both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have significantly waned over time, partially due to the ending of mask mandates and the highly contagious delta variant.
The letter, which appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, was written by an interdisciplinary team of physicians and public health experts at UCSD. They measured the effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines among health workers at UCSD Health, most notably during the emergence of the delta variant and coincident with the end of the state's mask mandate — allowing fully vaccinated people to forgo face coverings in most places.
