Today’s San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the local county death toll jumped by 15 people Tuesday, April 21, and hit triple digits for the first time since April 4, according to the latest daily COVID-19 update from the county health department. These newly-counted deaths did not come on a single day but are a serious warning to those who talk about opening sectors of the economy prematurely.
County officials say that would “be expected to backfire.” According to the U-T:
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher made his daily effort to convey that those keeping these orders in effect in the face of public protest over the weekend are doing so out of a desire to prevent a deadly resurgence in cases such as the one now under way in Singapore.
“They’re not out of a desire to infringe; they’re out of a desire to protect,” Fletcher said.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, reiterated her recent refrain regarding reopening of a wide range of recreation destinations from trails and beaches to basketball and tennis courts. Those things are coming, she said, but not in April.
“We are asking everyone to stay the course until the 30th of April,” Wooten said. “Then we will re-evaluate and see where we are at that time.”
This all comes on the heels of Mayor Kevin Faulconer declaring that certain beaches and parks would be reopened. On Tuesday, County supervisors Kristin Gaspar and Jim Desmond had floated the idea of naming May 1 the day that local businesses will reopen. The proposal was defeated by vote of 3 to 2 with Fletcher and supervisors Greg Cox and Dianne Jacob also voting no.
San Diego City parks, and parts of parks, were chosen by officials to open for passive use based on whether people in surrounding neighborhoods could walk to them.
The U-T reported, “according to county records, the 15 deaths announced Tuesday occurred during a five-day span from April 16 through April 20.”
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
The new numbers show an increase of SD County cases by 347 since last Thursday, and 24 additional fatalities.
Across San Diego County – 0.07% of the populations is infected….seems very low for these stringent measures and constitutional amendments…let people walk on the beach and surf at least. This is insanity.
And while the loss of 80+ lives is very sad, it is also very low – especially considering 98% of them had underlying health conditions and over the age of 60.
Everything about all of this just seems off – hopefully its just my tinfoil hat.
Obkid, last time I checked theer weren’t any new constitutional amendments passed.
The reason the infection rate is low is a direct consequence of the stay at home mandate. Letting people congregate will guarantee a massive spike in infections and death.
Are you proposing that we have a spike in infections so that 45 people can go surfing? We are supposed to be living in a society Obkid, a society that collectively takes care of each others needs, not just your need to go surfing.
Try to think of everybody in these times, not just yourself.
* typo – infringements not amendments
No one is asking to congregate in large numbers…simply to access the beach and ocean for exercise. The ocean provides many many thousands of san diegans with needed mental health especially during tough times. Not too mention many people in OB live in apartments – we should be able to walk/run on the beach and surf and swim in the ocean.
We’ve been inside for 5 weeks…the infection rate and death rate are so low and this is a modest and reasonable ask. Stop the hysteria.
P.S. – we do not live in a society that collectively takes care of each other needs.
OBkid – oh, okay, let’s stop the “hysteria”! No reason to feel anxious, the virus is only hitting the old and young, and we don’t need them, and especially since OKKID has declared that we are not a society that takes care of each other. Ya ever heard of social security, workers’ comp, UNEMPLOYMENT Insurance, Medical. Your favorite president just signed off on Trillions for others. You make some really hysterical comments OBkid and it’s like you’ve stuck your head in the sandy beach.
Frank – give me a good reason why people should not be able to exercise on the beach or go in the ocean? How is that different than the grocery store? or the sidewalks.
Sorry for your loss – I am not discounting anyone’s lives…but the data in SD county does not lie …there should be no reason that san diegans cannot exercise on the beach or go in the ocean.
Thanks Sam for your reasonableness. OBKid really sounds like a juvenile. Whoops, sorry, most juveniles realize the situation we’re in.
Your comments are really upsetting. Did you join the anti-lockdown protests? Seems like you should have been there. I’m not sure why editordude here allowed your stupid comments.
Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more deadly because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season.
CDC director said:
“There’s a possibility that the assault on our nation will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”
Sure CDC…where were they in November of 2019 when this was starting to spread??
Frank – while the loss of life is tragic…there is something about all of this that is amiss.
They were all fired by the dummy in chief because he didn’t like to spend money on people who are just sitting around.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-slashed-cdc-staff-inside-china-prior-to-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSKBN21C3N5
Give it up OBKid. You likely voted for the worst “president” of all time.
As Judi Curry pointed out, Sunset Cliffs is a favorite destination for people all over San Diego who are not working and don’t want to stay home. Neighborhood parks all have parking in the neighborhood. If people are showing up in droves when parks are closed, opening them is supposed to make it better?
Cliffs is a morning ritual for me – does not seem to be crowded at all – not ever close to pre-quarantine levels. But I agree – these arbitrary closures force people on top of each other.
I’ve been out to the cliffs and there’s lot of people.
More than normal? That ain’t happening…maybe if people could walk on a beach or boardwalk….hhhmmmm
Frank – shouldn’t you be following the stay at home order and only going out in your neighborhood (which is not OB)?? Why are you coming to sunset cliffs and adding to the virus carrying crowds?!? The hypocrisy!! (I am being sarcastic)
Why can’t we have a soft opening?
Allow people to go out that are willing to allow contact tracing through cell phones. People that are protesting contact tracing with apps etc. are the ones that will delay this process, which is stupid because they already have all your data. We are just trying to get things open.
Allow for non essential businesses to open with a few employees (those that don’t have to stay at home with kids)
Encourage more delivery of goods and services —people out of work could help deliver from other businesses like home depot (at least people could be doing projects around the house)
And why can’t we go any faster with a vaccine? Can’t we offer to pay people that are willing to be around the virus to see if it works against Covid-19. They are just injecting participants, then waiting around to see if they naturally contract it, when most will come into contact with it because we can’t wait a year and a half for the vaccine. That takes way too long.
California reported 2,318 new coronavirus cases Monday, marking the highest one-day jump the state has seen.
On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health reported a total of 30,978 confirmed cases and 1,208 deaths. The number of confirmed cases in the state spiked by 7.4 percent and the death toll increased by 5 percent in the last 24 hours.https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/493977-california-reports-highest-one-day-rise-in-coronavirus-cases
Which is exactly why we shouldn’t be opening the beaches now. I just can’t get my head around why Faulconer, a lame duck Mayor, is proposing this. I didn’t realize that he was an anti science republican, I thought he was far more moderate than the rest of the right wing.
Yes, I support and agree that the discovery is too fast. Just imagine, in our country there are several states that are comparable in size to some European countries in their area and population. Therefore, the peak of the spread of the virus is still not overcome. And you should slow down this trend while sitting at home. I think that there are my like-minded people and I hope that there will only be more of them. In fact, according to rumors, a person may not even suspect that he is sick with this virus and walk next to you walking a dog for example. Be careful and healthy!
Unfortunately, nCoV has shown our federal duopoly to be what many of us already knew, a servant of oligarchy, unwilling to enact powerful commonwealth legislation that would have gone a long way helping to encourage more of us to abide the best public health policy. Instead, we get stuff like giant banks doling out ‘small business’ loans to large, publicly traded, companies. And, of course, no robust paycheck security (like much of Europe has), but only one-time prickly $1200 checks, while Big Biz gets a $trillion(s) slushfund. See monkey do. Our federal so-called ‘leadership’ evidently doesn’t care much more than goosing the Dow Jones (a false metric for real economy), so it doesn’t take long in societal shutdown for the rank and file to choose going out to feed the geese, too. Object lessons of 1918 are for the birds. We’re going to the parade in Philly. Seems like the nCoV second wave is going to get hot, even before the first cools. Cooked geese.
We just updated the SDU-T link to the 4/22/20 article.
“Socialist” Europe was still staging soccer matches in full stadiums after the NBA suspended operations here. And we all know the outbreak surged there first. This seems to be a human issue much more than a political one.