San Diego County passed a grim milestone on Tuesday when local health officials announced the region surpassed 1,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
Twenty-two additional deaths were announced, bringing the county’s death toll to 1,019 as virus cases continue to increase locally.
Of those deaths, 43.9% of patients were at least 80 years old. The county states that of the more than 1,000 deaths, 58% of those patients were male and 42% were female.
COVID-19 in San Diego
More on the coronavirus in the county.
The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected Hispanic and Latino communities in the region, with 50% of deaths belonging to the demographics.
The somber announcement comes eight months after the county’s first COVID-19 death was announced. The first person from San Diego County to have died from the virus was a man in his early 70s who had traveled to Hawaii. At that time, the region had just more than 200 coronavirus cases.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, San Diego County has had 83,421 positive COVID-19 cases.
Tuesday also marked the 21st consecutive day more than 600 new cases have been reported and the ninth day of the last 12 more than 1,000 new cases were reported -- including two days over the Thanksgiving weekend with more than 1,800 new infections.
San Diego County is on a trajectory to double its number of cases in 45 days.
