On March 14, there was one confirmed cast of COVID-19 in San Luis Obispo County. Nine days later, as of Monday afternoon, there are 33. Two of those patients have been admitted to a local hospital, one in the intensive care unit.
Every area of the county has one or more cases, and of the first 21 cases, 12 traveled outside the county and are suspected to have contracted the disease elsewhere. Five are person-to-person transmission, meaning the new cases were passed on by a sick household member. Three cases are believed to be community-acquired, the virus contracted while out in public. The remaining cases are still being investigated.
San Luis Obispo County health officer Penny Borenstein said Saturday afternoon that the hospitalized patient is stable.
Click the listen button above to hear Dr. Borenstein's Saturday update.
Testing will be made available to first responders, Borenstein said, but not until those people are symptomatic.
The county public health department lab can accommodate testing up to 50 patients per day. Those who have a fever above 104 degrees F and breathing difficulties are the highest priority for testing, said Borenstein.
County officials say they’ve gotten a lot of questions about what qualifies as “essential travel,” so they put up a listing at www.readySLO.org.
