By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office
December 17, 2022 (San Diego) - Bivalent COVID-19 vaccination boosters are now approved and available in San Diego County for children as young as six months of age. The County Health and Human Services Agency is urging parents to protect their children, and themselves, by getting vaccinated with the new booster.
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the emergency use of the updated Pfizer and Moderna bivalent booster vaccines for children as young as six months. The FDA previously expanded availability to include 5- to 11-year-olds in October. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California Department of Public Health quickly recommended vaccinations for young children after the FDA approval.
- Cleaning hands thoroughly and often;
- Staying away from sick people;
- Staying home and avoiding contact with others when sick;
- Home testing when exposed or when ill; Regularly cleaning commonly touched surfaces.
- Close to 2.69 million or 80.4% of San Diegans received the primary series of one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines.
- Bivalent boosters administered: 474,245 or 19% of 2,494,254 eligible San Diegans.
- More vaccination information can be found at coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine.
- 24 additional deaths were reported since the last report on Dec. 8, 2022. The region’s total is 5,608.
- Of the 24 additional deaths, 14 were women and 10 were men. They died between Jan. 8, 2022, and Dec. 6, 2022. Nine of the newly reported deaths occurred in the past two weeks.
- 12 of the people who died were 80 years or older, four were in their 70s, two were in their 60s, five were in their 50s and one was in their 20s.
- 15 of these people had been vaccinated and nine had not received any COVID-19 vaccines.
- 21 had underlying medical conditions. Three had no underlying medical conditions.
- 4,821 COVID-19 cases were reported to the County in the past seven days (Dec. 6, 2022, to Dec. 12, 2022). The region’s total is now 952,752.
- The 4,821 cases reported in the past week were higher compared to the 5,649 infections identified the previous week (Nov. 29, 2022, to Dec. 5, 2022).
- 6,197 tests were reported to the County on Dec. 10, and the percentage of new positive cases was 10.1% (Data through Dec. 10).
- The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases, among tests reported through Dec. 10, is 10.1%.
- Seven additional flu deaths; the season’s total is now 20.
- Four of the additional flu deaths were women and three were men. They died between Dec. 1, 2022, and Dec. 6, 2022.
- Four of them had received a flu shot this season and three had not.
- All had underlying medical conditions. One of the newly reported deaths was coinfected with COVID-19.
- Emergency department visits for influenza-like illness: 7% of all visits (compared with 10% the previous week).
- Lab-confirmed influenza cases for the week: 1,603 (compared to 2,600 the previous week).
- Total lab-confirmed cases to date: 17,182 (compared to 696 at the same time last season and an 815 prior 5-year average during the same week).
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