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Articles written by Will Fritz


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  • Fallbrook, Bonsall coronavirus case rates reach new lows

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    San Diego County public health officials reported 205 new infections and seven additional deaths on Sunday, March 28, for a total of 1,752 new cases and 53 deaths in the preceding week. In the Fallbrook area, the 92028 ZIP code was showing a coronavirus case rate of 3.8 per 100,000 as of the week of March 7-13, the most recent week for which information is available. That’s of course lower than the 6.7 per 100,000 case rate during Feb. 28 – March 6. The county combines Bonsall’s 92003 ZIP code with Vista; the combined area...

  • helicopter rescue a teenager

    Teen who fell 30 feet off trail is rescued by helicopter

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    Firefighters rescued a teenager who fell over the side of a trail in Fallbrook Wednesday afternoon, March 24. Dispatchers were told around 3:50 p.m. that someone – possibly a hiker – needed to be pulled off a slope or cliff in the area of Sleeping Indian and Conejo roads on the southwestern edge of Fallbrook near Oceanside, according to information from Capt. John Choi of North County Fire Protection District. Fire crews from North County Fire, the Oceanside Fire Dep...

  • COVID-19 hospitalizations stabilize, with very slight increase at one hospital

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Apr 1, 2021

    Coronavirus hospitalization levels in Riverside and San Diego counties have mostly stabilized and even slightly increased at one hospital, per data released March 22 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to the data, which is a compilation of statistics from hospitals across the nation for the week preceding March 12, individuals with COVID-19 made up 4% of patients at Temecula Valley hospital, 6% of those at Southwest Healthcare System, which includes Inland Valley and Rancho Springs medical centers...

  • Woman says Rainbow Water failed to notify her and husband of meter work

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    A Fallbrook woman is upset about the way she says her family was treated when Rainbow Municipal Water District replaced their property's water meter. Nancy Zucker said she and her husband were never notified that the water district would be replacing her meter, and that the district's actions resulted in her Morro Hills home being left without running water for days and forced the couple to call a plumber – though the water district maintains it has notified all ratepayers w...

  • FUHSD students expected to return to in-person learning in hybrid model after spring break

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 25, 2021

    Fallbrook Union High School District students are expected to return to in-person classes in a hybrid format after spring break, the district said late Wednesday. FUHSD Superintendent Ilsa Garza-Gonzalez said in a letter to parents and guardians that the district reached a tentative agreement to add an addendum on COVID-19 protocols to the existing agreement between FUHSD and the Fallbrook High School Teachers Association. The addendum is still pending ratification by teachers’ union members. Should that happen, the d...

  • Firefighters rescue person who fell off side of trail near Sleeping Indian Road

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 25, 2021

    Firefighters were able to rescue a teenager who fell over the side of a trail in Fallbrook Wednesday afternoon. Dispatchers were told around 3:50 p.m. that someone — possibly a hiker — needed to be pulled off a slope or cliff in the area of Sleeping Indian and Conejo roads on the southwestern edge of Fallbrook near Oceanside, according to information from North County Fire Protection District Capt. John Choi. Fire crews from North County Fire, the Oceanside Fire Department and Camp Pendleton Fire Department arrived to fin...

  • FUHSD students expected to being hybrid learning model after spring break, district says

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 25, 2021

    Fallbrook Union High School District students are expected to return to in-person classes in a hybrid format after spring break, the district said late Wednesday. FUHSD Superintendent Ilsa Garza-Gonzalez said in a letter to parents and guardians that the district reached a tentative agreement to add an addendum on COVID-19 protocols to the existing agreement between FUHSD and the Fallbrook High School Teachers Association. The addendum is still pending ratification by teachers’ union members; should that happen, the d...

  • FRHD holds second vaccination event March 24, after publication

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    The Fallbrook Regional Health District scheduled its second vaccination event for Wednesday, March 24 – after Village News’ press time but before publication. The event, which was to be held at the district’s Wellness Center on Mission Road, had a total of 150 appointments available to receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The second shot appointment will be available within 21-25 days after the March 24 event, according to the health district. The event comes a little less than two weeks after FRHD’s first vaccina...

  • San Diego County now in red tier of coronavirus reopening plan

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    With San Diego County now in the red tier of the state’s coronavirus reopening plan, businesses including restaurants, gyms and movie theaters have been able to resume indoor operations, albeit with capacity limits and masking requirements. Beginning Wednesday, March 17, restaurants and movie theaters were allowed to operate indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people – whichever is fewer – according to the county. Gyms were allowed to reopen at 10% capacity, while museums, zoos and aquariums were allowed to reopen at 25% capac...

  • COVID-19 patients now make up minuscule percentage of hospitalizations region

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 24, 2021

    Coronavirus hospitalizations in southwestern Riverside and northern San Diego counties have now dropped to such a level that COVID-19-positive patients make up less than 10% of hospitalizations at most local medical facilities. The data, based on statistics from hospitals across the nation for the seven days preceding March 5, show individuals with COVID-19 now make up 4% of patients at Temecula Valley Hospital, 6% of those at Southwest Healthcare System, which includes Inland Valley and Rancho Springs medical centers in...

  • training in visual, performing and digital arts.

    DigiFest 3-day digital arts experience set for April 16-18

    Will Fritz, Associate Editor|Updated Mar 24, 2021

    DigiFest, the "digital arts experience" that bills itself as the Temecula Valley's biggest digital media festival and competition, is preparing to head into its fifth year – and its second one in a virtual setting as the pandemic continues. The event, hosted by JDS Creative Academy, features competitions for anyone who works in digital media in several categories. "We reach out to students, amateurs, adults, professionals who work in digital media – that covers everything fro...

  • Fallbrook Regional Health District to hold second vaccine event Wednesday

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 22, 2021

    The Fallbrook Regional Health District has scheduled its second vaccination event for Wednesday, March 24. The event is set to be held between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the district’s Wellness Center on Mission Road, and has a total of 150 appointments available to receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Those wishing to sign up for the March 24 vaccination event can do so at https://www.calvax.org/reg/3092816101. Appointments are required, according to FRHD, and those wishing to make appointments must be in one of the e...

  • paramedics help administer COVID-19 vaccines

    Health district holds first vaccine event

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    Fallbrook Regional Health District held its first vaccination clinic Friday, March 12, inoculating more than 200 people in a partnership with Cal Fire. The clinic was held throughout the day on Friday at Palomar College's Fallbrook Education Center on Horse Ranch Creek Road. The health district first announced the event in an email at about 1 p.m., Wednesday, March 10. Health district CEO Rachel Mason said the district is continuing to work to schedule additional vaccine...

  • COVID-19 hospitalizations reach new lows

    Will Fritz, Associate Editor|Updated Mar 17, 2021

    Coronavirus hospitalizations in northern San Diego and southwestern Riversidencounties now stand at their lowest points in months, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Per a data release from March 8, which is based on statistics from hospitals across the nation for the seven days preceding Feb. 26, individuals with COVID-19 now make up just 10% of patients at Temecula Valley Hospital and 11% of those at Southwest Healthcare System (which includes Inland Valley and Rancho...

  • County expected to drop into red tier this week, after press time

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    San Diego County was looking likely to drop down into the second-highest “red” tier of the state’s coronavirus reopening framework as of press time Monday, March 15. California's Department of Public Health modified the Blueprint for a Safer Economy to lead with opening activities when vaccines have been deployed to the hardest-hit communities – the floor for the purple tier will drop to 10 daily cases per 100,000 population once the state delivers a minimum 2 million doses to what it considers the hardest-hit Califor...

  • Flood damage

    Old pipe bursts, floods three Main Avenue businesses

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    Three downtown Fallbrook businesses were met with an unwelcome surprise one Friday morning a few weeks ago – a burst pipe left all three with varying amounts of flood damage. Jamie Mathieu, owner of Jewelry Connection at 101 N. Main Ave, said he arrived at the store the morning of Friday, Feb. 26, to find quite the commotion. "We came in and we noticed a bunch of debris in the parking lot," he said. Mathieu noticed a Fallbrook Public Utility District crew was in the area, a...

  • nurse

    Fallbrook health district still unable to announce local vaccine events

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    It will still be some time before the Fallbrook Regional Health District can hold local vaccination events, CEO Rachel Mason said in an email update. Mason said on Feb. 26 that she expected to be able to announce sometime in the following week that county vaccine supply had opened up enough for the health district to begin vaccinating Fallbrook-area residents but, on March 5, Mason said county officials had told her that in fact it would take longer for enough vaccines to be...

  • First Fallbrook vaccine event announced

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 10, 2021

    The Fallbrook Regional Health District on Wednesday announced its first vaccination clinic event, scheduled for this Friday. Health district CEO Rachel Mason initially said appointments had filled up within an hour after the event was announced, but the health district said in a later email update that some appointments were still available as of about 4:15 p.m. Appointments can be made here: https://www.calvax.org/reg/1902935606. Mason said the district is continuing to work to schedule additional vaccine events, but she...

  • Theme parks, stadiums will soon be allowed to reopen as pandemic wave appears to fade

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    With the most recent wave of the coronavirus pandemic appearing to be in the rearview mirror, some aspects of normal life will start to return next month. On Sunday, March 7, San Diego County public health officials reported 187 new COVID-19 infections and five deaths, far lower numbers than the thousands of new cases and dozens of new deaths reported on a typical day in December or January. In the 92028 ZIP code, which includes Rainbow and De Luz, county data showed the case rate dropped to 9.0 per 100,000 for the week of...

  • COVID-19 hospitalizations drop in Riverside County for fifth straight week

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 10, 2021

    The slide continues – for the fifth straight week, federal data shows across-the-board declines in the numbers of coronavirus patients at Temecula Valley and North County hospitals. Data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Feb. 28, showed the percentage of patients who were coronavirus positive dropped to 16% at Temecula Valley Hospital from 21% in data released the week before, Feb. 21; 13% at Southwest Healthcare System, which includes Inland Valley and Rancho Springs medical centers in Wildomar a...

  • Newly reported SD County coronavirus cases at lowest point since November

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    San Diego County is at a four-month low in new coronavirus cases, with just 262 new cases reported on Sunday, Feb. 28. In the 92028 ZIP code, which includes Rainbow and De Luz, county data shows a case rate of 15.4 coronavirus cases per 100,000 during the week of Feb. 7-13, the most recent week for which data is available – down from 24.5 the prior week. There were 53 new reported COVID-19 cases in 92028 between Feb. 7-13, a noticeable drop from the 84 new cases Jan. 31-Feb. 6, and there have been 3,515 total reported c...

  • Deputies find man shot after arriving at scene of reported car crash

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    Sheriff's deputies are investigating a shooting in Fallbrook that left a man dead Sunday night, Feb. 28. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received a report at about 8:20 .m. Sunday of a multi-vehicle car crash on Alta Vista Drive just north of Via Monserate, and deputies headed to the scene to find a man who had been shot. Medics took the man to a local hospital, where the man was pronounced dead. The victim was later identified as 62-year-old David Nathaniel Caballero, according to the sheriff's department. An...

  • Numbers of COVID-19 patients at local hospitals continue steep declines

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Mar 3, 2021

    As has been the story for weeks now, coronavirus hospitalizations are continuing an extreme decline from the heights of the brutal third wave of the pandemic as vaccines continue to roll out to more and more members of the public. Those with COVID-19 are making up a much smaller share of patients in local hospitals these days – data released on Feb. 21 by the HHS department showed 21% of patients at Temecula Valley Hospital were coronavirus-positive in the week before the report, as well as 17% at Southwest Healthcare S...

  • Still no local vaccination event dates as of March 1

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer

    Dates for local vaccination events have still not been announced by the Fallbrook Regional Health District as the county continues to feel the effects of vaccine shortages, CEO Rachel Mason said in an email update at the end of last week. It wasn’t clear as of press time March 1 exactly when the health district will be able to coordinate vaccine events in the Fallbrook area, but Mason said in her Feb. 26 update that events should be announced sometime the week of March 1. “The (v)accination events that were either pos...

  • Local continue showing declines in COVID-19 hospitalizations

    Will Fritz, Staff Writer|Updated Feb 24, 2021

    Coronavirus hospitalizations are continuing their steep decline locally, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Feb. 14. COVID-19-positive individuals are making up an increasingly small share of patients at local hospitals as the weeks go by – those with coronavirus now make up about a quarter of all hospitalizations at Southwest Riverside County health facilities, down from about a third in the data reported Feb. 7 and a significant drop from as many as two-thirds of all patients a...

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