Amy Hanson and her 11-year old daughter Abby check in at Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Jose on Wednesday to get the first dose of the pediatric COVID vaccine. (Photo by Jana Kadah/Bay City News)

With the holidays approaching, COVID-19 rates in San Joaquin County have begun to slowly decline, according to the latest data from the state.

In an early November San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors meeting, county Public Health Officer Maggie Park said that COVID-19 numbers were beginning to stabilize and a plateau in numbers could be seen.

However, numbers have begun to decrease since then. The county’s case rate as of Tuesday is 12.2 per 100,000 people and was at 15.6 per 100,000 people on Nov. 3.

The county trails closely behind the statewide case rate of 10.6 per 100,000 people as of Tuesday.

The testing positivity rate in the county has also gone down from the plateau of about 5 percent and is now at 3.9 percent and currently 77 are hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 24 people are in the intensive care unit.

The latest data as of Tuesday morning from California’s COVID-19 data portal showed that the state has a 1.9 percent testing positivity rate.

For fixed testing sites throughout the county and holiday hours, residents can visit https://sjready.org/events/covid19/testing.html.

Victoria Franco is a Stockton-based reporter covering the diverse news around the Central Valley as part of the Report for America program. As a Stockton native, Franco is proud to cover stories within her community and report a variety of coverage. She is a San Jose State University alumna with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. In her collegiate years she was Managing Editor for the Spartan Daily. From her time at the Spartan Daily she helped lead her staff to California College Media Awards and a General Excellence first place. Victoria encourages readers to email her story tips and ideas at victoria.franco@baycitynews.com.