Borrego Sun - Since 1949

Good to Live in Borrego: COVID-19 Update

 

Last updated 8/23/2021 at 10:14am



The United States accounts for more than one-fifth of the world’s total COVID-19 cases for the first time since mid-February, before vaccines were widely available, an analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Cases were rising in 46 states – Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi broke all-time case count highs, based on data reported on Aug. 13. Those tallies broke community-level records, too, including those of 32 Florida counties, 32 Mississippi counties, 12 Louisiana parishes and 10 Oregon counties. They also broke records in four of five Hawaii counties.

San Diego County reported 1,700 new COVID cases, the most since January. A total of 20,236 tests were reported on Aug. 13, and 1,271 new positive cases with three new deaths Aug. 14. Along with the new infections reported, one person was hospitalized and one sent to the intensive care unit. The cumulative number of cases is now 313,589 since the pandemic began, while the death toll is 3,824, according to the county Health and Human Services Agency. A total of 15,248 tests were reported Aug. 14, and the percentage of new positive tests over the past week is 8.4%. The county’s case rate in the weekly data per 100,000 residents was 21.5 overall.

Those who are not vaccinated are seeing case rates nine times those who are – 41.1 to 4.5 per 100,000 residents, data shows. The rate of hospitalization for the unvaccinated is about 51 times higher than for those fully vaccinated – 1.01 average daily hospitalizations compared to .02, according to the data. 149 cases in 92004-zip code for Borrego Springs.

Dr. Edgar Bulloch, CEO of Borrego Health announced that Borrego Health continues to offer vaccinations at all clinic sites.

“We are prepared to administer booster shots when the green light is given. It appears that may be as soon as this week for the immunocompromised. We will keep you apprised of that information. In the interim, it’s imperative to get the unvaccinated, vaccinated. We will continue to encourage vaccination to all those that remain unvaccinated. The more people remain unvaccinated, the longer the chances this virus is going to be around and have the potential to mutate into more variants.”

“We have thus far administered 22,209 vaccines, 1,129 of which were at Borrego Medical Clinic. The number of patients coming in for testing at Borrego Medical Center is way down. We have had less than 30 patients request testing in the last 30 days,” Bulloch added.

The County is now reporting that 2,589 residents of zip code 92004 have gotten at least one shot.

Borrego Springs is faring better than most geographies this summer with only four new cases between June 9 and Aug. 3. Three of which were from one family, with one new case since Aug. 3.