The CDC has downgraded San Diego County from the high COVID-19 community level to medium, meaning the disease is having a less-severe impact on the region's hospital system.
The county was moved into the high category in mid-July as the highly-infectious BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were driving up COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The CDC recommends taking the following precautions while the county is in the medium category.
- If you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions
- Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
- Get tested if you have symptoms
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On Thursday the CDC also dropped its recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.
Now that the county is in the medium COVID-19 community level, mandates and other precautions may be relaxed. When the county was upgraded to high, some school districts reintroduced indoor mask mandates, as did the Department of Defense.
Local
The San Diego Unified School District said it would announce Friday that its indoor mask mandate for students and staff would be retired by Monday.
As of Thursday, the county's case rate per 100,000 population was 262 ,35, new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population was at 9.6%, and staffed inpatient beds in use by patients with confirmed COVID was 6.6%.
The county only reports COVID data on Mondays and Thursdays.
