While coronavirus-related hospitalizations continued to increase last week, overall activity appears flat to down slightly in the latest weekly tracking report from the county health department.
There were 4,478 new positive tests reported last week compared to 4,893 two weeks ago. It’s a positive sign, especially since the same week last year included 6,555 new cases.
However, that observation comes with a major asterisk: Home test kits are much more available today than they were one year ago, meaning that recent totals likely exclude many positives that never were reported to health authorities.
The amount of viral material detected in local wastewater has recently been viewed as a more-complete picture of coronavirus prevalence in the community. As of last week, wastewater concentrations were falling after reaching a minor peak on Dec. 7.
However, no update had been released as of mid-afternoon Friday, so it was unclear whether the trend has continued downward over the past week or if an expected surge is once again building.
Local hospitals are continuing to see the fallout of increased infection levels two weeks ago with the collective number of COVID-related hospital patients listed at 425 Thursday, up slightly from 370 one week earlier. The California Department of Public Health said recently that about half of hospitalizations that test positive for coronavirus infection were admitted due to complications of the disease while the remainder are in the hospital primarily for other reasons.
Flu activity in San Diego County also continued to wane, though slowly, with 6 percent of emergency department visits exhibiting flu-like symptoms of fever plus cough and/or sore throat. Last week, 7 percent of cases were showing flu symptoms. While not long in the double digits as was the case a few weeks ago, the current level of activity remains elevated for late December. The prior five-year average, according to county records, is 4 percent.