- The county is not aware of anyone in this region having an adverse reaction to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. A group of national health experts is meeting tomorrow to determine next steps for allowing continued use of that vaccine.
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The county will not require returning college students in the fall to be vaccinated. Those decisions will be up to individual colleges and universities. County health officials are working with all of the universities to develop health recommendations.
- The return of school sports has resulted in some outbreaks, but few cases overall.
Infection after vaccination
The county’s medical director shared yesterday that of the over 757,355 people vaccinated here, 203 have contracted COVID-19, a rate of 0.027%. This is a little higher than the national average. There have been no hospitalizations and no deaths among those who have been vaccinated.
Even though the risk of serious illness is greatly diminished following vaccination, wearing a mask and taking other precautions are still important. The goal is to contain the spread in the community overall. An added advantage of fewer cases is fewer opportunities for the virus to mutate into potentially worse versions.
Beginning of the end of the tier system
The colored tier system is still in effect, but the updated “blueprint” from the state included additional criteria that make it very unlikely San Diego County will fall into a more restrictive tier by the time the system is officially retired June 15, according to county officials.
The California Department of Public Health indicates that unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as low rate of vaccine uptake, a county will only move to a more restrictive tier if hospitalizations are increasing significantly among vulnerable individuals, especially among vaccinated individuals, and both testing positivity and adjusted case rates show a concerning increase in transmission. This is currently not the case in our region.
Losses of life continue
I am always trying to balance the tone of these updates. I want to provide encouragement and recognize the ongoing efforts our community has taken to slow the spread. I tell you every week how proud I am that Carlsbad has the lowest case rate in our region among cities with 50,000 people or more. Now I just told you that we are not likely to see more restrictions.
We still report on deaths in our regular dashboards, but I haven’t been sharing more detailed information lately. Today, I am going to because I think it’s important to remember that even as things are getting better, families are still losing loved ones almost every day.
- Seven new COVID-19 deaths were reported April 20. The region’s total is 3,681.
- Four women and three men died between April 4 and April 19.
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They ranged in age from the 40s to the 80s.
I don’t know more about these people, but someone does. They were known and loved, and now they are gone. It’s no less tragic because things are getting better overall.
What do vaccine reactions mean?
As vaccinations become more common, I often hear questions about why people seem to have such different reactions following shots. I am no public health expert, but I happened to see this article and thought I’d share it in case you have that question too. Here is a more technical source from the CDC.
