SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — For the first time in 40 days, San Diego County has fallen below the state's County Monitoring List threshold for coronavirus case rate.
San Diego County was placed on the list on July 3 after it crossed the state metric of 100 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days. Wednesday, the county reported a case rate of 94.1.
The county will have to remain off the watch list for another three days to get off California's watch list and an additional 14 days in order for local schools grades 7th through 12th can return to in-person instruction.
No other businesses are slated to be allowed to reopen after that 17-day window unless the state provides more guidance for business reopenings, according to the county.
San Diego County reported 236 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a 3% positive rate out of 7,339 reported tests. Six new deaths were also reported, including five women and one man who died between July 28 and Aug. 11. All of the victims had underlying conditions, county officials said.
The county also reported two new community outbreaks, one in a grocery setting and one in a manufacturing setting.
While the county's case rate has fallen, it continues to be high above its community outbreak threshold of seven in seven days. Currently, the county has 26 community outbreaks in a week. A community outbreak is three or more coronavirus cases in the same setting in people of different households in the past two weeks.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said of the drop in the county's case rate: "San Diegans should be proud of the progress we have made, but we have to recognize the goal is not just to get our cases down, it is to keep them down. We’ve seen progress because of a renewed focus and vigilance, and we need that same focus going forward."