Seven more people tested positive for coronavirus in San Luis Obispo County, according to the San Luis Obispo Public Health Department. This brings the total number of cases to 13 as of Thursday afternoon.
One of the individuals that tested positive is in their 20s. This person had traveled from outside of the country.
All 13 of these cases are in isolation at home.
Three of these cases are on the coast, five in North County and another five in South County, according to County Emergency Services Director Wade Horton.
Health Officer Penny Borenstein said she could not disclose more specific information about the patients that tested positive.
Borenstein said that some of those patients appear to have fully recovered. The county will evaluate when the patients are cleared, but Borenstein said it will take at least 72 hours of no symptoms and seven days after the onset of illness to allow someone to be cleared.
The number of cases has steadily increased since the county reported its first case Saturday, March 14.
“We expect to see an epidemic of this sort,” Borenstein said. “We’ll be sitting here in another few weeks and we’ll likely have cases in the three digits.”
The increase in the number of cases comes after the county issued an executive order for all residents to shelter at home, which begins March 19 at 5 p.m.