San Luis Obispo County now has 99 coronavirus cases, adding 4

San Luis Obispo County added four new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, raising the total to 99.

The rise in cases comes after a day where no new cases were reported — which happened twice since Saturday.

Officials with the county Public Health Department said they believe the slow rise in cases is due to a lack of testing.

County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein is encouraging patients showing even mild symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, to get tested. Current data may not be showing the illness’s true impact on the county.

“As you may have seen these past few days, the number of confirmed cases in SLO County has stagnated,” reads a statement on ReadySLO.org. “We think it’s at least in part because not enough people are getting tested. We think there is more of this disease in SLO County than the numbers are showing.”

The Public Health Lab performed 11 new COVID-19 tests from Monday to Tuesday, bringing the total number tests to 528. Of the 99 cases, 42 of the positive tests have come from the Public Health Lab, and 57 positive tests were conducted at private labs.

The county is still working to get data about the number of total tests private labs are conducting.

The majority of the county’s COVID-19 patients — 71 people — have completely recovered from the virus.

Twenty-four patients are recovering at home, and three patients have been hospitalized, all of whom are in the intensive care unit.

One county patient has died from COVID-19.

Patients are considered to have recovered once they’ve shown no symptoms for 72 hours and it’s been at least seven days since the onset of the illness, according to Borenstein. Patients who have recovered are not re-tested.

Santa Barbara County has 174 COVID-19 cases, and two patients there have died of the virus, according to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.

Coronavirus cases by community

Most of the county’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 — the illness caused by the new coronavirus — are still concentrated in the North County.

Paso Robles has 27 coronavirus cases, Atascadero has 19 cases, Arroyo Grande has 14 cases, and San Luis Obispo has eight cases.

Nipomo, Morro Bay, and Templeton each have six cases, and other areas have 13 cases.

COVID-19 symptoms to watch

Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Mild symptoms also include chills, fatigue, sore throat, runny nose and diarrhea.

Older adults and individuals with underlying medical conditions are particularly vulnerable to the virus.

Health officials urge those who exhibit symptoms to stay home, avoid contact with others, and call their health-care provider or urgent-care clinic before seeking medical care to receive safe arrival instructions, if directed to do so.

Go to the emergency room only if you are experiencing a medical emergency.

The county is preparing for a surge in cases and has asked qualified volunteers to apply for the Medical Reserve Corps. The corps would be activated if hospitals reach capacity and Cal Poly is used as an alternate care site.

To volunteer for the medical corps auxiliary, sign up at HealthcareVolunteers.ca.gov and then email the San Luis Obispo Medical Corps coordinator at slomrc@gmail.com.

Visit ReadySLO.org for the latest public health updates and recommendations.

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:27 PM.