I got tied up on a phone call, but I'm gonna go back and listen to this and pseudo live tweet it. https://twitter.com/SanDiegoCounty/status/1316491363194531840

Cox starting off with our tier status - we landed in red again.
He's reiterating how important our testing volumes are in the quest to stay in that tier. (That's because our case rate gets a downward adjustment when we test at a higher rate than the state.)

Now going over the Board of Supes vote to reallocate some unspent CAREAS Act funding:
- $3.8 million is going to the county's Test, Trace and Treat program
- $5 million to assist behavioral health patients with rental assistance
-$1.6 million to youth and childcare programs

- $7 million for small business grants
- $3 million to expand emergency rental assistance programs for low-income families
- $2 million to local food banks
- $1.6 million to the Great Plates program (which feeds mostly seniors)

Cox reminding everyone to get their flu shots. People can contact 211 if they don't know where to get a flu shot.
Fletcher up next.

Fletcher pointing out while we remain in the red tier, we're teetering on the edge of the purple tier.
Basically, we're not getting any worse, but we're not getting better. Need to get to a place where numbers are falling - right now, we're holding steady.

Need to lower those numbers if we want to get to the orange tier, which would allow some businesses to expand indoor operations.

Fletcher saying the county is working with districts across the county about standardizing information about what schools are open and in which configuration... not sure what that means, but Wooten is supposed to chat more about it later.

County is also going to be working out reporting procedures for cases tied to schools.

Fletcher reporting 303 new cases, about 3 percent of the 9,662 tests logged yesterday.
The regions rolling 14-day average percentage of positives is 3%.
Currently, an estimated 244 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus, inc. 74 patients in ICU beds.

There are currently 464 people in ICU beds for all manner of reasons, including COVID.
The region's ICU bed capacity is 696.
Hospitalization numbers have been really steady over the last month.

Wooten up.
To date, 51,327 residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 844 have died. (Death toll up 4 from yesterday.)

Wooten reporting 4 new community-setting outbreaks: 2 in businesses, 1 in a restaurant, and 1 in a restaurant/bar.
Over the last week, the county has investigated 47 (!) such outbreaks.

She's now clarifying that while the county tracks outbreaks to help "get a big picture view of the county's COVID status," they're not used by the state when they assess us every week.

Also saying again that if the county feels any particular outbreak location poses a risk to the public, they'll make that location public. (Like they did with SDSU.)
Also saying cases tied to outbreaks only account for about 5% of all the region's cases.

We remain in the red tier with a 7-day case rate of 6.8 (adjusted down from 7.2 due to high testing totals) and a testing positivity percentage of 3%.
That testing positivity percentage falls in the orange tier, but our higher case rate keeps us in the red.

Wooten explaining more about the latest state metric, the health equity metric.
This metric is based on the HPI (Healthy Places Index.)
Every census tract has an HPI score that is based on a variety of factors: everything from socioeconomic levels to education to healthcare.

Using these HPI scores, every census tract in San Diego County is put into four quartiles. The tracts in the highest quartile see the healthiest conditions and the tracts in the lowest quartile face the least healthy conditions.

The state's Health Equity Metric requires counties to calculate a unique testing positivity percentage for the tracts that scored in the least healthy quartile, and that positivity percentage lands us in a health-equity-metric specific tier.

The testing positivity percentage in the San Diego County census tracts that fall in the lowest quartile is currently 5.7%, which places us in the red tier.
This metric would not prompt a county to move up a tier, but it can prevent a county from moving down a tier.

Wooten moving to schools.
Based on a survey of the county's districts:
- 27 are open to some or all students
- 6 will open later in October
- 3 have the target reopening date of Jan. 2021
- 1 is still working to identify a date in Oct. or Nov.
- 2 haven't determined a date

The county is working to get clear information about what each district is doing - should have more details about that next week.

More flu shot talk. County officials really stressing the importance of getting vaccinated to ensure we don't get hit with a busy flu season while we're managing COVID.

On to questions.
@DannyEFreeman asked about how the county is going to help test Point Loma Nazarene students. (The college just reported a dozen new cases.)
McDonald said the county will deploy a surge or testing at the college to help test students.

surge of testing*
Paul Sisson asking about the county's serological survey plans.
(Serological tests measure the presence of antibodies -- in this case COVID-related antibodies -- indicating someone had previously been infected with the disease.)

This would give the county an idea of how many people were exposed vs how many people officially tested positive.
That may help understand how many more people are susceptible, and eventually deploy a vaccine strategy.

Wooten saying the county is expanding the team that assesses outbreaks.

That's it!