County launches respiratory virus surveillance report the news

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency is launching a new combined Respiratory virus surveillance report This will provide San Diegans with a detailed snapshot of common respiratory illness activity in the region on a weekly basis.

The new report will be released every Thursday and includes both flu and COVID-19 activity, including cases, outbreak data and deaths. The report includes graphs and tables that allow the community to compare this year’s illness activity to previous seasons’ activity.

The Respiratory virus surveillance report By replacing individual Influenza Watch And See COVID-19 Previously published county reports.

“The new report provides a more comprehensive picture of respiratory disease activity in the region,” said Wilma J. Wooten, MD, MPH, County Public Health Officer “The report is a one-stop-shop for community members and healthcare providers, and we will continue to update it with new features as needed in the future.”

San Diegans can sign up for reports hereOr access it in San Diego County COVID-19 website and influenza website.

Bivalent booster for children 5 and older

The California Department of Public Health recently updated California’s emergency use approval of bivalent COVID-19 boosters to include young children. Eligibility for the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster now extends to persons 5 years of age and older and eligibility for the Moderna bivalent booster now extends to persons 6 years of age and older.

These bivalent boosters are available through health care providers, participating pharmacies and county public health centers. Parents should visit the state My turn website To schedule an appointment.

Bivalent boosters were designed to protect individuals from the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. Everyone 5 years of age and older who has had the primary vaccination series is eligible to receive an update booster two months after any COVID vaccine or booster dose.

Vaccination progress:

• About 2.69 million or 80.4% of San Diegans have received an initial series of approved COVID-19 vaccines.
• Boosters administered: 1,480,105 or 60.0% of 2,467,279 eligible San Diegans.
• More vaccination information can be found here coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine.

Death:

• 10 additional deaths have been reported since the last report on October 13, 2022. The region has a total of 5,517 people.
• Of the additional 10 deaths, two were women and eight were men. They died between January 29, 2022 and October 5, 2022. One of the newly reported deaths occurred in the past two weeks.
• Four of those who died were 80 years or older, three were in their 70s and three were in their 50s.
• Eight were fully vaccinated and two were not.
• All had underlying medical conditions.

Cases, Case Rate and Testing:

• In the past seven days (October 11 to October 17, 2022), 1,591 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the county. The region’s total is now 927,970.
• The 1,591 cases reported last week were slightly lower than the 1,855 infections detected in the previous week (October 4 to October 10, 2022).
• 4,710 tests were reported in the county on 15 October, and the percentage of new positive cases was 4.0% (data as of 15 October).
• The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases among tests reported as of October 15 is 3.9%.

More information:

Update information The county’s coronavirus-sd.com website Thursday will be published around 5 pm, excluding holidays.