County Extends COVID-19 Test to Meet Demand Caused by Omicron | News

The San Diego County Health and Welfare Department continues to expand the COVID-19 test in the region to meet the increasing demand brought about by the rapid spread of Omicron variants. The county has a network of free test sites, both walk-ups and reservations.

The latest test center is the site at Palomar YMCA in Escondido, which can offer up to 800 tests a day from Monday to Friday. New reservations are available daily and can be booked up to 3 days in advance.

but, County-run test site This is not the only test option in the region. Local health providers provide tests to members who meet the standards of each system.Many nearby pharmacies offer same-day testing like any other location This list..

Rapid antigen testing, which can be purchased at many local pharmacies, is a good option if the testing site is not available.Find information on how to best use rapid testing here..

This week, the federal government launched a program that will allow all US residential households to order up to four home COVID-19 test kits for free. Tests can be ordered online. COVIDtests.gov.. Those who order the test kit only need to provide their name and address. No ID, credit card or health insurance information is required.

Avoid hospitals for COVID testing

Meanwhile, San Diegans should continue to avoid the local emergency department for COVID-19 testing. Local hospitals are conserving resources for critically ill patients due to increased hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and staff shortages due to the coronavirus.

The county recommends that anyone worried about COVID-19 infection or seeking a COVID-19 test go to the hospital for testing only if they have severe symptoms.

“There is still a lot of viral activity in our community, and the best way to prevent illness is to avoid large numbers of people, wear masks in public, and get booster shots when qualified. That’s what Wilma J. Wooten said. MD, MPH, County Public Health Officer. “Boosters are available to fully vaccinated people over the age of 12 and provide protection against severe consequences from the highly contagious Omicron mutant.”

Vaccination progress:

• Dosage: Nearly 6.48 million.
• At least one vaccination: Over 2.83 million, or 90.0% of San Diegans over the age of 5, are at least partially vaccinated.
• Complete vaccination: 2.5 million or more or 79.5%.
• Administered booster: 959,697.
• For more information on vaccination, please visit the following URL: Coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine..

Dead (number:

• Twenty-four new deaths have been reported since the previous report on January 12, 2022. The total number of people in this area is 4,553.
• Between December 15, 2021 and January 13, 2022, 11 women and 13 men died.
• Eleven were over 80 years old, four were in their 70s, six were in their 60s, one was in their 50s, one was in their 40s, and one was in their 20s.
• One of the dead was fully vaccinated and 23 were not fully vaccinated.
• Twenty had an underlying medical condition and four had a medical history pending.

Cases, hospitalizations, case rates and tests:

• On January 18, 2022, 9,382 COVID-19 cases were reported to the county. There are currently 613,632 totals in this area.
• 69,151 COVID-19 cases were reported last week (January 12 to 18, 2022), compared to 85,659 cases the previous week (January 5 to 11, 2022). Was reported.
• During the 30 days from December 7, 2021 to January 5, 2022, there were 729 COVID-19 hospitalizations. 419 were not fully vaccinated and 310 were completely vaccinated.
• The overall case rate per 100,000 inhabitants of San Diego County is 209.7, 173.3 for fully vaccinated people and 283.2 for fully unvaccinated San Diego.
• On January 18, 2022, 41,506 tests were reported to the county, with a new positive percentage of 22.6%.
• The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases under test is 26.4%.

Occurrence of community settings:

• 32 new community outbreaks have been identified in the last 7 days (January 12, 2022 to January 18, 2022): 20 for TK-12^th Elementary school settings, government settings 4; business settings 2; university / university settings 2; day care / kindergarten / childcare settings 1; emergency service settings 1; healthcare settings One at the hotel / resort and one at the spa / spa setting.
• Community outbreaks are triggered more than 7 times in 7 days.

For more information:

Data update County Coronavirus-sd.com website Published Monday to Friday around 5 pm, excluding holidays.