San Diego (CNS)-San Diego County public health officials reported 71 new COVID-19 cases and 4 new deaths on Tuesday as hospitalizations for the virus fell to double digits.

Tuesday’s data brought the total number of cases to 279,785 and the death toll to 3,753.

The number of hospitalizations dropped from 112 on Monday to 98, and the number of cases in the intensive care unit dropped from 38 on Monday to 33. A month ago, the number of hospitalizations was 161 and the number of ICU beds was 47. There are 55 staffed ICU beds in the county.

San Diego County is still in the “orange class” of the state’s color-coded reopening plan, with an adjusted incidence rate of 2.4 new cases per 100,000 people.

To enter the loosest yellow grade, the county needs to report an average of less than two new cases per 100,000 for two consecutive weeks.

This is unlikely to happen until the state lifts most COVID-19-related restrictions on June 15.

Both the positive test rate and the health equity index (a measure of the county’s most vulnerable quartile) are low enough to cause San Diego County to fall to yellow in these categories, at 1.5% and 1.8%, respectively. The county is classified as the worst performing tier.

Of the 7,767 tests reported to the County Health and Human Services Bureau on Tuesday, 0.9% were positive. The 14-day rolling average is 1%.

The county met 70% of its target on Tuesday, vaccinating 75% of residents 12 years and older (2,101,936 people). Approximately 1.47 million residents of San Diego County were completely vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A total of 1,902,948 residents of San Diego County received at least one dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, accounting for 90.5% of the target.

The county has received more than 4 million doses and managed nearly 3.57 million doses.

The county reported receiving 252,610 vaccines last week.A complete list of available vaccination locations can be found Here.

City News Service, Inc. Copyright 2021.