SLO County’s COVID case rate drops as county passes 19,000 mark
San Luis Obispo County added 311 coronavirus cases since Thursday and saw an active case rate of less than 1,000 for the first time since mid-December 2020.
Though the county reached another milestone and passed 19,000 coronavirus cases, daily case counts, case rate and positivity rate all continue to trend downward.
San Luis Obispo County added 38 coronavirus cases Friday, 67 cases Saturday and 99 cases Sunday. It reported 19 new cases on Monday and added 88 cases Tuesday. Monday marked the lowest daily increase in coronavirus cases in weeks.
In total, 19,210 San Luis Obispo County residents have tested positive for coronavirus since March 2020.
An additional five deaths due to coronavirus were reported since Thursday, involving people ranging in age from 30 to 64. Locally, 210 people have died due to the virus.
As of Tuesday, San Luis Obispo County remains in California’s most restrictive tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
What tier is SLO County in?
San Luis Obispo County remained in the purple tier of coronavirus restrictions despite hopes for a red-tier reclassification, according to the county Public Health Department.
The county’s adjusted average was 15.6 new cases per day per 100,000 people, down from 19.3 new cases per day per 100,000 people the week prior. The unadjusted case rate was 29.5 cases per day per 100,000 people, according to the state.
Tuesday’s case rate marked the lowest local adjusted case rate since early December.
As of Tuesday, the county had a 4.3% positivity rate, a slight improvement from the past week’s 4.5%.
The latest health equity metric released Tuesday calculated that the positivity rate for people who live in the 12 census tracts in San Luis Obispo County ranked in the lowest quarter of California’s Healthy Places Index at 5.9%. Health equity was the only metric that worsened since the week prior.
New COVID-19 cases by city
Here is where new COVID-19 cases were added on Tuesday in San Luis Obispo County, according to ReadySLO.org:
San Luis Obispo: 81
Paso Robles: 78
Nipomo: 30
Atascadero: 28
Arroyo Grande: 18
Grover Beach: 15
Oceano: 13
Morro Bay: 11
Cambria: 7
Templeton: 7
Pismo Beach: 6
Los Osos: 5
California Men’s Colony: 4
San Miguel: 4
Santa Margarita: 4
Cayucos: 2
Shandon: 2
Cal Poly (campus residents): 1
The locations of seven cases were listed as “other.” A total of 73 local coronavirus cases remained under investigation.
Outbreaks at the California Men’s Colony state prison in San Luis Obispo and Atascadero State Hospital have been greater than indicated by county data, according to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Department of State Hospitals.
CDCR had recorded 2,472 total coronavirus cases among CMC inmates as of Tuesday, with three active cases in custody and seven testing positive in the past 14 days.
Nine inmates have died due to COVID-19.
DHS reported Tuesday that 212 patients have tested positive at Atascadero State Hospital since May 2020. The agency reports that none of those patients have tested positive within the past 14 days.
ASH has reported at least one and fewer than 11 deaths among patients who tested positive for COVID-19. The facility had no hospitalized coronavirus patients as of Tuesday, and has not said how many were hospitalized in the past.
Cal Poly’s documented total of coronavirus cases involving both on-campus and off-campus students was 1,503 as of Tuesday.
SLO County coronavirus cases by the numbers
Here’s a look at San Luis Obispo County’s cases on Tuesday, according to the county Public Health Department.
- Active cases: 821
- Recovered cases: 18,150
- People recovering at home: 795
- People receiving hospital care: 26
- Total people in intensive care units: 8
People in intensive care units out of the county: 0
- Deaths due to COVID-19: 210
For a detailed look at local coronavirus cases by age, occupation and more, visit ReadySLO.org.
Where to get a COVID-19 test and schedule a vaccine appointment
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department is urging anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, or those who have come into contact with someone with the virus, to get tested.
Free coronavirus testing is available at clinics throughout San Luis Obispo County. To make an appointment, visit emergencySLO.org/testing; you can register by phone at 888-634-1123.
As of Tuesday, the county Public Health Department is administering coronavirus vaccines to health care workers, skilled nursing residents and employees and people age 65 and older by appointment only.
To schedule an appointment visit RecoverSLO.org or call 805-543-2444.
Appointment schedules will be announced on weekdays around 9 a.m. as appointments become available on RecoverSLO.org and via county email alerts.
To sign up for email alerts visit EmergencySLO.org/en/newsletter.aspx.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 2:06 PM.
