Alameda County had 36 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Saturday, for a total of 256, according to data from the county’s Public Health Department and the city of Berkeley, which reports its cases independently from the rest of the county.
The county also recorded two new coronavirus-related deaths, for a total of six.
The total case count of 256 includes 16 confirmed cases in Berkeley, which reported no new cases Saturday.
Alameda County and the rest of the Bay Area has been under a shelter-in-place order for nearly two weeks as part of an effort to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
“Scientific evidence shows social distancing is one of the most effective approaches to slow the transmission of communicable disease,” the county public health department wrote in an announcement of the order.
Earlier this week, several Bay Area counties, including Alameda, announced a requirement that all testing facilities in the region report coronavirus tests they conduct, regardless of the outcome. That’s part of an effort to track the spread of the virus in the region.
“Because of the limited capacity of public health laboratories and the absence of further reporting requirements of private laboratories, the current percentage of cases that are detected through testing is important, but reflects only a small portion of the total number of people infected in our jurisdictions,” the counties wrote in a news release.
Alameda County, which has 1.7 million residents, has the fourth-most cases in the Bay Area.