On the last day of 2020, the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health reported a maximum of 396 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and recorded three additional virus-related deaths.
The county’s previous one-day record of new daily cases of COVID-19, set for Dec. 14, occurred when the Department of Public Health reported that 360 people were infected.
County public health officials said this week the number of COVID-19 counties of new daily cases, positivity testing, active cases and hospitalizations were the highest ever reported during the pandemic of several months.
“Not only are we gathering insecurely, but we risk losing the extremely limited hospital beds we have left and exhausting the medical staff who have tirelessly cared for our community,” Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said on Wednesday.
Thursday’s latest report brings the county’s total case to 17,391 Santa Barbara County residents who tested positive for COVID-19, while the confirmed death toll was 160, according to the Department of Public Health.
The people who died “lived in the Santa Barbara and Mission Canyon areas, in Lompoc and in the Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village communities, as well as in the city of Santa Maria,” according to the county’s online dashboard.
Some geographical areas in the county are included in the COVID-19 daily status report.
Two individuals who died of COVID-19 were 70 years of age and older, and one person between the ages of 50 and 69 died.
Two residents “had underlying medical conditions,” and one death was associated with an outbreak at an assembly unit.
There have been 1,756 new cases in the last seven days in the county, for an average of almost 251 cases per day.
COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to increase, with 135 patients being treated in local hospitals on Thursday, the highest daily number since the county’s first positive case in March.
Of these patients, 34 were in intensive care units.
Over 46% of the total county intensive care beds were occupied by patients with COVID-19, a slight decrease compared to 47.3% the previous day.
The availability of intensive care units in the southern California region remained at 0% on Thursday, while the county’s availability fell to 4.4%, down from 9.5% the day before.
Santa Barbara County is grouped in the Southern California region, where ICU availability must increase to 15% or more for the county to exit the regional residence order.
The number of active cases in the county destroyed records for a single day, with at least 1,456 residents who tested positive and are still considered infectious.
During the winter holidays, local public health officials spent the past few weeks urging residents to avoid gathering with people outside their household in an effort to help combat the spread of the fast-moving virus.
(Scroll down to watch a new COVID-19 update from Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, an infectious disease specialist at Cottage Health, via YouTube)
Areas in the county are reporting an increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
Of the new cases reported on Thursday, Santa Maria had 98, Santa Barbara had 87, Lompoc had 58, Goleta recorded 38, the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area reported 23, and 20 came from Orcutt.
The unincorporated area of the Goleta and Gaviota Valley and the unincorporated areas of North County each had 14 new cases.
The Santa Ynez Valley had eight, and Isla Vista reported six.
Geographical locations were waiting in 30 new cases daily.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department reported Thursday that two additional deputies and three detainees tested positive for COVID-19.
“Both employees were tested as part of ongoing employee supervision tests and constantly wore masks while working,” said Sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick, adding that this brings the total number of sheriff employees. who tested positive for COVID-19 at 81.
Two inmates who were booked at the main prison near Santa Barbara turned out to be COVID-19 positive during the admissions process, Zick said.
“One of the detainees has been released since then,” she said. “A third detainee in the general population turned out to be COVID-19 positive. All detainees who had direct contact with this COVID-19 positive detainee gave negative results, but will be housed separately and monitored.”
There are eight detainees considered to have active cases of COVID-19 and a total of 98 detainees in the main prison who have tested positive for COVID-19 to date.
Each COVID-19 positive inmate is housed in areas with a negative air pressure housing, Zick said, and “are constantly monitored by medical staff.”
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