Health

San Diego County COVID-19 Update – 4-16-2021

coronavirus illustration
Credit: Shutterstock
By Katie Cadiao, County of San Diego Communications Office
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Here is today’s COVID-19 update from the County Health and Human Services Agency with data through April 15.

Vaccination Progress:

  • More than 2.39 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the region, and close to 2.23 million have been logged as administered. This number includes both County residents and those who work in San Diego County.
  • Of those vaccinated to date, more than 784,000 County residents, or 29.2% of San Diegans 16 and older, are fully immunized.
  • Overall, more than 1.25 million County residents have received at least one shot of the two-dose vaccine. That’s 46.6% of those eligible.
  • The goal is to fully vaccinate 75% of San Diego County residents 16 and older or 2,017,011 people. To date, 62.2% of the goal population has received at least one vaccine and 38.9% are fully vaccinated.
  • Those who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is currently on hold in the County due to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, are being added to the total of fully vaccinated San Diegans.
  • The difference between doses delivered and those used in a vaccination represents approximately what is expected to be administered in the next seven days and doses still to be entered in the record system.
  • More information about vaccine distribution can be found on the County’s vaccination dashboard. For vaccination opportunities, visit www.vaccinationsuperstation.com.

State Metrics:

  • San Diego County’s state-calculated, adjusted case rate is currently 6.0 cases per 100,000 residents (as of April 13).
  • The County remains in the Orange Tier or Tier 3 under the state’s new guidance. The California Department of Public Health recently advised that unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as low rate of vaccine uptake, a county will only move to a more restrictive tier if hospitalizations are increasing significantly among vulnerable individuals, especially among vaccinated individuals, and both testing positivity and adjusted case rates show a concerning increase in transmission. This is currently not the case in the region.
  • Currently, the testing positivity percentage is 2.5%, placing the County in Tier 3 or the Orange Tier.
  • The County’s health equity metric, which looks at the testing positivity for areas with the lowest healthy conditions, is 3.0% and is also in the Orange Tier or Tier 3.
  • CDPH assesses counties on a weekly basis. The next report is scheduled for Tuesday, April 20.

Community Setting Outbreaks:

  • Three new community outbreaks were confirmed April 15, one in a business, one in a residence and one in a restaurant/bar setting.
  • In the past seven days (April 9 through April 15), 17 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:

  • 18,038 tests were reported to the County on April 15, and the percentage of new positive cases was 2%.
  • The 14-day rolling average percentage of positive cases is 1.8%. Target is less than 8.0%.
  • The 7-day, daily average of tests is 13,144.

Cases, Hospitalizations and ICU Admissions:

  • 317 COVID-19 cases were reported to the County on April 15. The region’s total is now 274,566.
  • 15,104 or 5.5% of all cases have required hospitalization.
  • 1,673 or 0.6% of all cases and 11.1% of hospitalized cases had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.

Deaths:

  • Nine additional COVID-19 deaths were reported April 15. The region’s total is 3,662.
  • Most of these deaths occurred in the last several months (one in December, four in January, one in February, one in March and two in April) but were just added to the list after a rigorous review of death certificates that were incorrect or incomplete and required the analysis of the patients’ medical records to determine if they were COVID-19 deaths.
  • Four women and five men died between Dec. 29, 2020 and April 14, 2021.
  • Of the people who died, four were 80 years of age or older, two were in their 70s, one was in their 60s, one was in their 50s and one person was in their 40s.
  • All had underlying medical conditions.

More Information:

The more detailed data summaries found on the County’s coronavirus-sd.com website are updated around 5 p.m. daily.