With the rise of COVID-19 after the holidays, the spread of the virus in Santa Barbara County is the largest of all California counties.
Speaking at the weekly press conference on Friday, the director of public health of Santa Barbara County, Van Do-Reynoso, explained the reasoning behind these latest data and how the county is in trouble, amid the furious pandemic.
“The spread rate of COVID-19 is higher in Santa Barbara County than any other jurisdiction in California,” Do-Reynoso said. “These are grim numbers – extremely extremely worrying.”
The county’s actual reproductive number, also called R-efficient, is the average number of people each infected person will transmit the virus to and the rate at which COVID-19 spreads, according to the California Department of Public Health. The average R-effective number uses estimates from the Covid Act Now, says the state website.
COVID-19 will spread “exponentially” if the R effect is greater than one, and the virus will spread “slower and cases will decrease” if the number is less than one, Do-Reynoso said. Starting Friday night, CDPH estimated that the county’s number is the highest in the state, at 1.27.
Do-Reynoso said that two weeks into the new year, the county is facing the consequences of extended assembly, travel and mixing and mixing during the holidays.
“During the holidays, the number has increased exponentially,” she said, noting that the county’s COVID-19 values are “extremely high.”
There have been 3,309 new cases in the last seven days in the county, for an average of 472.7 cases per day. In the last seven days, the county registered 2,561 new cases, which represents an average of 365.9 cases per day.
There were 2,786 active cases across the county on Friday, and that number is “about a tripling of pre-holiday active cases,” Do-Reynoso said.
The total number of patients with COVID-19 hospitalization and intensive care in the county “has increased fourfold since the holidays,” Do-Reynoso said, adding that testing the county’s positivity for COVID-19 is about 16 percent – a doubling rate. from the holidays.
Santa Barbara County will begin vaccinating residents 75 years of age or older next Wednesday, but there is a limited amount of COVID-19 vaccine and people may not receive an immediate appointment.
There are more than 32,000 county residents aged 75 years or older, according to the county.
California officials have extended eligibility for residents age 65 and older at this stage, but vaccinations will begin for them as soon as more vaccines are available from the state. Click HERE for more information.
New COVID-19 cases
Public health officials reported another 364 COVID-19 cases and five new deaths on Friday.
So far, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the county is 23,538, and the related deaths are 228.
Four of the people who died were over 70 years old, and one was between 50 and 69 years old, according to the Department of Public Health.
Three had underlying medical conditions, and one death was associated with an outbreak at a congregation unit. Two lived in Santa Maria, two lived in Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village, and one lived in Orcutt. County officials group some geographic areas into its daily COVID-19 reports.
There were 192 confirmed COVID-19 patients who were treated in local hospitals, a decrease from 197 the previous day. Of these, 52 were in the intensive care unit – one less than the previous day. There were 89 ICU beds for adults and more than 58% of them were occupied by patients with COVID-19, according to the county’s online dashboard.
ICU availability in the Southern California multi-committee region rose to 0% on Friday. The adjusted availability of the Santa Barbara County ICU increased slightly to 1.3%.
Local hospitals are caring for “an increasing number of people who are sick enough to need hospital care,” said Dr. Henning Ansorg, a county public health officer. “We anticipate that this trend will probably last in February.”
Most COVID-19 hospitalizations include Santa Barbara County residents between the ages of 40 and 50, Ansorg said Friday.
“Even young and otherwise healthy people can get seriously infected with the virus,” Ansorg said.
Sue Andersen, president / CEO of Marian Regional Medical Center, said the hospital is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 “greater than what we have seen so far.”
Marian has adopted her growth plans and is using extra bed space, “we have only prepared for these types of situations,” Andersen said.
Of Friday’s new cases, Santa Barbara had 120, Santa Maria had 85, and both Lompoc and the Montecito-Summerland-Carpentry area reported 31. There were 19 in Goleta, 16 in Santa Ynez Valley and 15 in the unincorporated area of Goleta. Valley and Gaviota. Ten were reported each in Orcutt and the unincorporated areas of North County and Guadeloupe. Four were in Isla Vista and 23 cases were awaiting geographical location.
Twenty-eight additional detainees and nine additional staff from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department tested positive for COVID-19 this week, according to Raquel Zick, the sheriff’s spokeswoman. This brings the total number of inmates in the main prison who tested positive to 154, and a total of 97 sheriff employees have tested positive for COVID-19 to date.
“Five of the detainees tested positive during the admission check, and two were released from custody,” Zick said. “The remaining 23 are part of a currently managed outbreak in one of the main prison housing units.”
Detainees in the associated residential areas were examined and offered tests for COVID-19, Zick said.
“All COVID-19 positive detainees are either housed in areas with a negative pressure housing or housed separately from the general population,” she said. “All affected housing areas are quarantined and closely monitored by medical staff.”
There are 49 detainees with an active case of COVID-19 in the main prison, Zick said Friday.
Meanwhile, a probation department staff member at the Santa Maria junior hall and a member of the Los Prietos boys’ camp tested positive for COVID-19, according to Karyn Milligan, a public information officer for the probation department.
A young man was also positive when he was booked at SMJH, Milligan said Friday. The young people “face minor symptoms” and “are housed in a medical observation unit used especially for COVID-19 positive young people”.
After efforts to track contact with the virus, Milligan said, identified personnel were tested as a precaution and their results were negative for COVID-19.
An increase in positive cases during booking seems to show how widespread COVID-19 is in the community, Milligan said.
“It is noteworthy that the last four young people enrolled in SMJH have given positive results for COVID-19,” Milligan said. “Young people are not connected in any way, they come from different areas of the county, including northern, southern and middle county regions.”
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