A flurry of businesses reopened Friday throughout San Diego County as health officials reported 258 new COVID-19 cases and one death, raising the region's totals to 10,350 cases and 332 deaths.
For the second day in a row, the new cases set a daily high, but accordingly, the number of COVID-19 tests reported Friday also reached a daily high, with 10,544 tests reported. The death was a woman in her early 80s who died on June 17 and had underlying health conditions.
The 258 cases comprised just 2% of those tests reported Friday, but community-transmitted COVID-19 outbreaks have activated one of the county's public health triggers, placing a pause on any additional openings allowed by the state.
The businesses scheduled to open Friday, including personal care businesses like skincare and waxing salons, tattoo parlors, massage therapists and nail salons — were still allowed to open.
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"We continue to implore the public to wear facial coverings and avoid having gatherings at your home," San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said.
After public health officials reported eight community-transmitted outbreaks in San Diego County in the last week Thursday, Fletcher said any further openings allowed by Gov. Gavin Newsom wouldn't be implemented until numbers go down.
As part of the 13 public health triggers announced earlier this month, the county could take industry-specific actions, pause all reopening efforts or even dial back reopenings if enough of the metrics rise above a certain threshold. The threshold for community outbreaks — defined as three or more lab-confirmed cases from different households — was fewer than seven in a week's span.
Two new community outbreaks were reported Friday, offsetting three outbreaks which "fell off" the county's one-week rolling monitoring period. The total number of outbreaks in a community setting is now at seven, which keeps the metric at a caution level. Additionally, the percentage of active COVID-19 cases has grown by 28% in the last week, something which would otherwise be a red flag for the county's epidemiology team — although testing has increased markedly, making the increase in cases within expected levels.
