DAILY COVID-19 CASES AGAIN PASS 8K MARK
State says mask mandate will extend through Feb. 15; county warns of testing scams
Near-record coronavirus case totals continued in San Diego County Wednesday as hospitals saw the total number of patients with COVID-19 climb past 700.
The county health department’s weekly coronavirus report came on the same day that Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, extended California’s indoor mask mandate for locations accessible to the public.
Resurrected on Dec. 15, the requirement was to be re-evaluated on Jan. 15, but the health official said during a news conference Wednesday that with the high levels of coronavirus transmission, keeping the mandate at least through Feb. 15 is warranted.
Demand for testing remained strong throughout the region as a new wrinkle appeared with the county health department warning the public to avoid fake testing sites. No information was immediately available on whether the county has shut down fake sites, but a statement indicated that “pop up” sites offering free testing are running “potential scams” to harvest personal information.
Telltale signs that a site may not be legitimate include asking for Social Security numbers, using written materials without a logo or operating from a sidewalk and not being affiliated with a known medical provider. Legitimate testing sites also should be able to specify which lab they’re working with and show medical credentials upon request.
San Diego County’s weekly report showed daily new cases again spiking to 8,204 Tuesday, nearly reaching the record, set Sunday, of 8,313. Total local COVID-related hospitalizations hit 750 Tuesday, significantly more than the 454 reported one week ago, but still far less than the 1,800 seen in January 2020.
As they did during a news conference Monday, county officials asked the public to stop visiting local hospital emergency departments for testing and minor coronavirus symptoms.
“If you’re experiencing no COVID-19 symptoms, have mild illness or have not been exposed to someone who tested positive, go to one of the many testing locations available in the region,” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, deputy county public health officer, in a statement.
Surges in lower-level COVID-19 visits, combined with unprecedented numbers of health care workers testing positive and staying home from work, has created significant concern this week among the region’s health care providers. Scripps Health said Tuesday that its hospital in Chula Vista was operating at near disaster levels, and an official said Wednesday that while there was still significant concern, the situation had not worsened.
Some have recently speculated that the current increases in hospital admissions are not always caused by coronavirus but rather by patients arriving for other care and testing positive during routine screening. Ghaly said the state is working with all California hospitals to get a better handle on what percentage of hospital cases with COVID-19 were admitted for other reasons.
Some have wondered whether that scenario is particularly prevalent among hospitalized children who have more frequently been admitted to pediatric units as the Omicron surge has exploded across the nation.
On Wednesday, Rady Children’s Hospital reported a total of 24 patients were admitted with COVID-19, but Dr. John Bradley, an infectious disease specialist at Rady, said the group is made up of kids who tested positive for coronavirus infection and had another serious condition present such as seizures, cancer, chronic lung disease, severe asthma and previous organ transplant.
In all recent cases, he said, children were hospitalized as a precautionary measure given that developing the severe symptoms of COVID-19 would have a significant likelihood of lifethreatening complications.
Bradley said that these children have tended to be given the anti-viral drug remdesivir or, if they’re age 12 or older, the monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, both of which can significantly lessen the chances of severe consequences if given quickly enough after infection. Most, he added, are kept in the hospital for a short amount of time after receiving the drugs to be monitored before being sent home.
So far, he added, none who have received sotrovimab have needed to be readmitted after being discharged home. Two transplant patients, one who previously received a donor heart and a second who was about to undergo a bone marrow transplant, were both briefly hospitalized shortly after testing positive. Both, Bradley said, received sotrovimab and sent home. So far, neither has had a significant progression of symptoms.
It’s remarkable for transplant patients because they must be on drugs that suppress the immune system to prevent organ rejection. Bone marrow transplant patients are even more vulnerable just before their procedures because their immune systems must be essentially destroyed before they can undergo the operation.
“It’s great to see these kinds of outcomes because these are the kids we worry about most, and they’re doing well,” Bradley said.
Some Rady patients have ended up in the hospital’s intensive care unit, Bradley added, but they have tended to be adolescents with body weights that put them in the obese category.
An additional 34 COVIDrelated deaths, including one man who was 32 years old, were listed in this week’s report. While 25 of the deaths have occurred as recently as Dec. 16, the remainder track back as far as Aug. 31 due to reporting delays. According to the county, 11 of those who died were vaccinated and 23 were unvaccinated.