The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency is reporting a record-high number of new COVID-19 deaths. The 65 deaths reported today surpass the previous single-day record of 62 deaths reported on New Year’s Eve.
Health officials are attributing the spike in deaths to holiday gatherings.
“The majority of the COVID-19 deaths we are reporting today occurred in the past two weeks, which suggests that illness onset for the individuals who passed away coincided with the winter holidays, said Wilma J. Wooten, M.D., M.P.H. County public health officer. “While we anticipated that deaths would go up at the beginning of the year, it is tragic to see the devastating impact of the virus on our community.”
Wooten is pleading with the community to take the record deaths as a reminder that the virus is not over and that we must do all we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19. County health officials urge San Diegans to:
- Wash your hands
- Wear a mask
- Keep your distance from others and leave your household only for essential activities
- If you’re sick, get tested, and then stay home and isolate yourself
- Consider getting vaccinated once you are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
More information about the vaccine can be found at coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine
ICU Capacity and Stay Home Order:
- The current intensive care unit (ICU) bed availability for the Southern California region is 0.0% and will be updated by the state daily.
- The Regional Stay Home Order is in effect and prohibits gatherings of any size with people from other households and adds restrictions for multiple sectors.
- The order will last until the region’s ICU availability meets or exceeds 15%.
Community Setting Outbreaks:
- Seven new community outbreaks were confirmed on Jan. 19: four in business settings, one in a daycare/preschool/childcare setting, one in a distribution warehouse setting and one in a faith-based agency setting.
- In the past seven days (Jan. 13 through Jan. 19), 47 community outbreaks were confirmed.
- The number of community outbreaks remains above the trigger of seven or more in seven days.
- 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 14 days.
Testing:
- 18,359 tests were reported to the County on Jan. 19, and the percentage of new positive cases was 9%.
- The 14-day rolling average percentage of positive cases is 11.8%. Target is less than 8.0%.
- The 7-day, daily average of tests is 24,865.
- People at higher risk for COVID-19 who are with or without symptoms should be tested. People with any symptoms should get tested. Healthcare and essential workers should also get a test, as well as people who have had close contact to a positive case or live in communities that are being highly impacted. Those recently returned from travel, or who participated in holiday gatherings, are also urged to get tested.
Cases:
- 1,720 cases were reported to the County on Jan. 19. The region’s total is now 218,555.
- 8,583 or 3.9% of all cases have required hospitalization.
- 1,319 or 0.6% of all cases and 15.4% of hospitalized cases had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
Deaths:
- 65 new COVID-19 deaths were reported to the County on Jan. 19. The region’s total is now 2,174.
- 30 women and 35 men died between Dec. 19 and Jan. 18.
- Of the 65 new deaths reported, 30 people who passed away were 80 years or older, 12 people were in their 70s, 17 people were in their 60s, four people were in their 50s, one person was in their 40s and one person was in their 30s.
- 63 had underlying medical conditions and two had medical history pending.
More Information:
The more detailed data summaries found on the County’s coronavirus-sd.com website are updated around 5 p.m. daily.
