A steady decline in COVID-19 case rates prompted the closure of some testing sites in San Joaquin County, county health officials told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Public health officer Maggie Park said as of Tuesday, the Lodi Grape Festival Grounds and the San Joaquin County Agriculture Center testing sites are now closed because testing demand has decreased.
“We had gotten as high as a demand for almost 15,000 tests per day back in January and we are just below 5,000 tests being conducted in the county per day.” Park said.
Park said the county’s case rate for people testing positive for COVID-19 was at 22.3 per 100,000 people as of Tuesday, a vast drop from the case rate of 66 per 100,000 people that was reported by Park on Feb. 15.
“We are coming down from the omicron surge and it’s looking very optimistic,” Park said.
The number of people hospitalized has also fallen in recent weeks. On Feb. 15, Park told the board the county had 173 people with COVID hospitalized, with 52 in the intensive care unit and 35 on ventilators.
As of Tuesday, Park said the county had 77 people hospitalized with COVID, 25 in the ICU and 19 on ventilators.