A researcher at UC San Diego Health wearing personal protective equipment. Courtesy UC San Diego Health
San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency Friday reported 389 new COVID-19 infections and three deaths, as case numbers are showing an week-over-week increase in the region.
In the past week, a total of 2,277 infections were reported, 318 more than the previous week’s 1,959. The county’s cumulative totals increased to 756,718 infections and 5,236 deaths with Friday’s data.
More than 30,000 San Diegans have been hospitalized with COVID-19 locally since the beginning of the pandemic, the HHSA reported this week.
The first county resident was hospitalized in the region on Feb. 25, 2020. As of Friday, there were 89 county residents hospitalized with COVID-19, a decrease of one from Thursday. The total number of patients in intensive care beds is 13, an increase of three from the day prior.
While hospitalizations have been slowing down since the Omicron variant surpassed its peak earlier this year, new COVID-19 infections reached a two-week high Wednesday with 411 reported, followed by 518 on Thursday. Though the figure is still well below daily case counts repeatedly over 10,000 in January of this year, county health officials are urging vulnerable populations to practice increased caution when out in public.
In San Diego County, 94.3% of residents eligible — age 5 and older — have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 82.8% of those eligible — or 2,607,527 — are fully vaccinated and 55.9% from a smaller eligibility group — 1,237,325 — have received boosters.
City News Service contributed to this article.