SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - COVID-19 case numbers continue to creep back up in San Diego County.
"We had gotten a little sleepy and hadn't had a few cases in a while and we were enjoying that time but after July 4th, this is when we would expect it," said UC San Diego Health Infectious Disease expert Dr. Davey Smith. ABC 10News spoke to him on Monday.
"Since Wednesday, Thursday [and] Friday of last week, we've seen increased cases," he said and added, "All across town, my colleagues have been seeing an uptick."
San Diego County health officials have announced that they will now be publishing case information daily, not just twice a week.
As of late Monday, 829 new cases were reported since last Friday, meaning that the daily average nearly doubled over the weekend. There have also been ten new hospitalizations and one new death.
The total case count is now 284,647.
Across the country, there is growing concern over the Delta variant which is now the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States.
As of last Friday, there were 54 confirmed Delta cases in San Diego County.
There could be even more cases since not every positive test is sequenced to figure out the exact makeup of the virus.
"The bad news is that the Delta variant is more infectious and it's more deadly if you were to get it and not be vaccinated. The good news is if you get vaccinated, you're protected from dying from this variant," added Dr. Smith.