San Luis Obispo County is reporting the deaths of another eight people who tested positive for COVID-19.
Health officials say the patients were between the ages of 60 and 100.
In San Luis Obispo County, 82 people have been killed as a result of COVID-19.
The county also added a record 576 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total to 10,178 confirmed cases on Dec. 30.
San Luis Obispo County Health officials attribute the high number of new cases in part to a backlog in the state database. On Tuesday, county health officials said a change in the way the state allocates suspected cases to a county caused a delay in reporting at the local level.
Between Friday and Tuesday, SLO County reported just 131 new COVID-19 cases, while the state’s COVID-19 website showed 883 new cases in the county during the same period.
County health officials said they were reviewing those cases and expected the total number of confirmed cases to exceed 10,000 this week.
Currently, 58 people with COVID-19 are hospitalized in San Luis Obispo County, including 11 patients in ICU. Another 2,187 people are recovering at home and health officials say 7,837 people have recovered.
According to the California state of California online COVID-19 dashboard, there are currently 19 ICU beds available in San Luis Obispo County.
Breakdown of cases by location:
- Paso Robles – 2,264
- San Luis Obispo – 2,152
- Atascadero – 897
- Arroyo Grande – 733
- California Men’s Colony (inmates) – 726
- Nipomo – 695
- Grover Beach – 414
- Ocean – 353
- Templeton – 308
- San Miguel – 286
- Cal Poly (campus residents) – 256
- The Bears – 208
- Morro Bay – 201
- Pismo Beach – 155
- Atascadero State Hospital (patients) – 124
- Shandon – 89
- Saint Margaret – 84
- Cambria – 72
- Creston – 43
- Cayucos – 43
- Avila Beach – 16
- San Simeon – 8
The location of 37 additional cases is being investigated, and a further 14 are listed as “other”, including communities with fewer than five cases. The Health Department does not identify those locations.
Community COVID-19 test sites are currently open to the public in San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Morro Bay, Grover Beach and Nipomo.
Appointments are mandatory at all locations. Click here to make an appointment.
To learn more about the county’s COVID-19 response, visit readyslo.org.