San Diego County reports 480 new COVID-19 cases, three deaths

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - San Diego County public health officials reported 480 new COVID-19 infections and three new deaths related to the illness Friday, Nov. 6, raising the region's total to 59,116 cases and 907 deaths as the county continues to await news Tuesday on whether it will sink into the dreaded purple tier of the state's four-tiered COVID-19 reopening plan.

Two men and one woman died between Nov. 3 and Nov. 4. Their ages ranged from the early 70s to the early 90s. All had underlying medical conditions.

State officials reported Wednesday that San Diego County had an unadjusted new daily coronavirus case rate of 8.7 per 100,000. The adjusted case rate had dropped to 7.4 per 100,000, above the baseline of 7, qualifying the state for the purple, or most restrictive tier of the reopening plan. Last week's unadjusted case rate was 7.8 per 100,000.

According to the reopening plan, a county has to report data exceeding a more restrictive tier's guidelines for two consecutive weeks before being moved to that more restrictive tier. A county then has to be in that tier for a minimum of three weeks before it may move to a less restrictive tier.

San Diego County has been in the red tier for months, skirting but ultimately avoiding the purple tier, which would necessitate the closure of almost all indoor operations of nonessential businesses. Recent trends have shown a slow but steady increase in infection numbers.

If the county cannot drop its adjusted daily case rate below 7 per 100,000, indoor operations in locations such as restaurants, museums, places of worship, breweries and retail businesses will have to either close entirely, move to outdoor operations only or modify in other ways.

In recent weeks, the region had an unadjusted rate well above the purple tier guidelines, but a significant effort to increase the volume of tests had allowed for an adjustment to bring it back to the red, or substantial, tier.