San Diego’s public health leadership on Tuesday provided a deeper look at the patterns beginning to appear in the far-reaching epidemiological investigation that grows every time testing confirms a new COVID-19 case.

Five such new cases were added to the count in San Diego County Tuesday, pushing the total to 60 just eight days after confirmation of the region’s first local novel coronavirus infection on March 9.

Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the county’s epidemiology and immunization services branch, said officials have spotted two “clusters” of individuals with common social connections among the first 55 cases detected so far.

The first includes four people, some whom are active-duty military members, who apparently contracted the virus in the community, McDonald said. One of the four got sick enough to be hospitalized while the other three have been isolating at home. This grouping includes a person in the Navy whose infection was announced over the weekend.


“These individuals are known to each other, and we’ve identified close contacts of these individuals,” McDonald said, noting that the investigation was ongoing.

The second group under investigation involves seven people who went on a ski trip in Colorado. That state issued an advisory that there had been cases in several counties with ski resorts.

The group of seven received that information and contacted health officials when they started showing symptoms. One person is hospitalized, and six are in isolation at their homes

In addition, one of the people in the first cluster attended the CRSSD electronic music festival at San Diego’s Waterfront Park next to the county administration building on March 7 and 8.


McDonald said that contact-tracing investigations have found that a total of two people with known COVID-19 attended the concert. One was known to have traveled to a country where a coronavirus outbreak is ongoing while the second got sick after attending the event, he said. Given that it takes three to five days for symptoms to appear after infection, the executive said it is likely that the infection occurred before the event, not during it.

There was some discussion about whether or not the popular event should be allowed to occur given the increasing talk of the need for public health precautions and an outbreak raging in China. But, at the time, the county still hadn’t recorded a local COVID case, and Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, said she didn’t feel such a step was yet necessary.

“Closing large gatherings, that is not something that is prudent at this time,” Wooten said. “It certainly is something that we might have to do in the future if COVID-19 was in the community, but it’s not a strategy that’s warranted at this time.”

Though McDonald did not specifically confirm the travel location, talk has been swirling on the social news aggregation site reddit in recent days after a post indicated that an SDSU student who got sick after a trip to Italy attended CRSSD.


Jennifer Barnier, a local independent school teacher from Mission Hills, said she started experiencing symptoms last Wednesday that included sore throat, tight chest pain and a dry cough as well as lethargy and aches and pains. She said she never heard back about testing after contacting the public health department last week but learned just Tuesday that she might now be able to get tested. Luckily, she added, her symptoms appear to be improving, and she never had a fever, the signature feature of coronavirus infection so far.

Luckily, her independent teacher status meant that she was never in classrooms full of students and said she managed to keep her distance during one-on-one meetings before school closures swept the region.

Jennifer Barnier at the CRSSD Festival in 2020. (Jennifer Barnier)

Overall, she said, it was more than a little startling to hear that some who attended the festival tested positive.


“I was kind of surprised that they didn’t just shut it down out of an abundance of caution, but I’ll also say that the majority of the people that went probably wouldn’t say that,” she said. “If I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have gone.”

On Monday, the county also called on local health providers to delay elective surgeries and other procedures where feasible. That work, health systems said, began in earnest Tuesday. Representatives from Scripps Health, Palomar Health and Kaiser Permanente confirmed they’re working to take those actions, though with varying amounts of speed.

Scripps Health Chief Executive Officer Chris Van Gorder said in an email Tuesday afternoon that it’s not as simple as just shutting everything down. The executive, who said he received word Tuesday that his own minor finger surgery had been postponed, added that staff leaders are using an algorithm to decide which elective procedures should still be performed.

“Some procedures, even if not emergent, need to continue (such as) cancer procedures (and) surgeries, for example,” Van Gorder said.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been silent about what’s going on in the quarantine operation that it’s running at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar for former Grand Princess cruise ship passengers who were flown to the base for 14-day quarantines last week. But county officials provided a glimpse at what’s going on inside the cordon Tuesday.

McDonald said that of the 489 people who had been flown to the base, 132 have been flown back home.

As of last night, 357 individuals remain at the base on federal quarantine. Officials planned to fly another 115 passengers home on Tuesday.

There has also been progress, said county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, in obtaining motel rooms for those who have nowhere else to convalesce if they are a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case. Fletcher said that 1,100 motel rooms have been made available for people who need to be quarantined – up from 227 rooms just a day before – and an unknown number of people already have been placed.


That number, he added, is expected to grow, perhaps as high as 2,000 motel rooms, to provide quarantine spaces for homeless people, seniors in assisted living or for anyone who tested positive for COVID-19.

Homeless people are considered particularly vulnerable to contracting the novel coronavirus because they often do not have opportunities to wash their hands, which the public is being advised to do often.

Supervisor Greg Cox, who with Fletcher is on the county’s coronavirus subcommittee, said the Health and Human Services Agency had placed 186 hand-washing stations in the region, and another 78 would be added soon.

Fletcher said county officials would meet Wednesday morning with homeless advocates, representatives of the faith-based community and business members to discuss the region’s response to the outbreak.


There was little additional news Tuesday on the bombshell announcement dropped in the same meeting at the County Operations Center just 24 hours earlier wherein Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, announced that all bars would be closed, all restaurants would be restricted to takeout only, and public and private gatherings would be limited to under 50 people.

Wooten said at the latest briefing that the county’s Department of Environmental Health sent emails yesterday to restaurants and other establishments to notify them of the order.

“We’re 24 hours in, and we’ve notified all of the businesses, and we’re asking them to comply with the order,” she said.

Businesses that do not comply will be subject to an as-yet undetermined fine.


Fletcher also provided an update on the COVID-19 Community Response Fund the county launched Monday to help area residents who are experiencing food insecurity or who need temporary help with paying the rent or utility bills because of issues related to the health crisis.

At Tuesday’s briefing, Fletcher said the fund, which began with $1.3 million, had grown exponentially through donations.

Also on Tuesday, the county closed all library branches but also began drive-through services. A new text message service was also announced for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The system will allow county health officials to send real-time notices to anyone who requests them. To sign up, text “cosdcovid19" to 468311.

