Last month, in Santa Barbara County, the number of active cases of COVID-19 has quadrupled and the number of hospitalizations has nearly tripled.
“The case rate is staggering, it’s astronomical,” public health director Van Do-Reynoso said at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting. “We expect it to increase at least until the end of January due to travel and holiday meetings.”
Public health officials on Tuesday reported eight more deaths from COVID-19, including three residents in Santa Maria, one resident in Santa Barbara, one resident in the unincorporated area of South County, one resident in Lompoc, one resident in Orcutt and a resident in the unincorporated area in North County. Three of the deaths were associated with outbreaks of congregated facilities, according to the county.
Since March, 207 people have died from COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County, and a third of those deaths have been recorded in the past month.
Cases and the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations have skyrocketed in recent weeks, setting constant and breaking records and causing concern about the availability of the intensive care unit.
On December 31, the Department of Public Health reported a record 396 new daily cases. That figure was surpassed shortly afterwards, with 456 new cases registered on January 4, and shattered on Thursday when 512 new cases were reported.
The highest number of daily cases to date was reported Sunday, when the county reported 779 new cases in just one day.
470 new cases were registered on Tuesday. There are currently 2,895 infected people (people who have recently tested positive, which the county calls active cases).
More than 200 Santa Barbara County residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, the highest number recorded during the pandemic. (Illustration by Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk)
Santa Barbara County had an adjusted case rate of 64 new daily cases per 100,000 people on Tuesday and an average seven-day positivity rate of 16.8%.
Hospitalizations surpassed 200 for the first time Tuesday, when Public Health reported 211 COVID-19 patients at local hospitals across the county, 56 of whom require intensive care.
Overall, 80 of the 89 staffed ICU beds were occupied as of Tuesday and 71% of those patients have COVID-19, according to the county’s community data board.
Public health officials predict the county will remain under the tenure at Governor Gavin Newsom’s home for at least another month, as projections do not show UC availability in the Southern California region to reach 15% or more. It was 0% as of Tuesday.
As Do-Reynoso said, public health officials believe cases and hospitalizations will continue to rise for several more weeks due to the delay between exposure, infection and illness enough to require hospital care.
Less than three weeks have passed since Christmas and two weeks since New Year’s Eve, when many people were traveling and attending meetings.
| County of Santa Barbara | December 15th | December 22nd | December 29th | January 5th | January 12 |
| New positive cases reported the previous week | 1,268 | 1,445 | 1,541 | 2,320 | 3,240 |
| New cases among health workers the previous week | 54 | 84 | 72 | 50 | 113 |
| Total test results reported the previous week | 17,532 | 18,243 | 15,753 | 12,681 | 23,953 |
| COVID-19 positive hospital patients | 78 | 103 | 127 | 172 | 211 |
| Active cases (still infectious after positive) | 1,059 | 1,245 | 1,227 | 2.105 | 2,895 |
| Cumulative deaths related to COVID-19 | 140 | 150 | 156 | 173 | 207 |
The county is expanding test sites and advancing in the first round of vaccinations
The county has expanded COVID-19’s free trial opportunities for the public and can test 1,173 people a day between the five sites, Do-Reynoso said.
“Having the mobile testing unit and the additional capacity of 500 tests it provides is really timely and important,” Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart said of the most recent site at the CenCal Health building near Santa Barbara. Appointments from all five sites can be made online.
Do-Reynoso said the county has 48 case investigators / contact tracers working seven days a week. They can close about 400 cases on weekdays and 200 on weekends, when they have fewer staff, he said.
The percentage of cases with a full contact tracking investigation has been declining as cases increase and Public Health officials have called for help from members of the public.
“With the dramatic rise in positive cases, the Department of Public Health is working as quickly as possible to contact all those who have tested positive recently, but resources extend beyond anything previously seen, to and all with capacity-building plans, ”officials said in a Dec. 14 statement. “It is crucial that the public helps. If people have tested positive for the virus, they should take immediate action to stay home and isolate themselves from others while following the isolation guidelines and notifying other people who have had them. a close contact ”.
One-third of the 207 local deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in the past month, according to the Department of Public Health’s Community Data Dashboard. (Illustration from the public health department of Santa Barbara County)
About 80 percent of cases had a contact tracking investigation in October and 70 percent from Nov. 25 to Dec. 24, but only 59 percent have had an investigation since Dec. 25, Do- Reynoso.
Incomplete contact tracking data from the last week of December show that administrative / administrative workers, health care workers, children and retired / unemployed people are over-represented in recent cases compared to the general pandemic.
Do-Reynoso also gave an update on county-wide vaccination efforts.
The Department of Public Health distributed most of its vaccine doses to community providers, including hospitals, and 53 percent of those 13,975 doses were administered within three weeks, he said.
Public health itself has vaccination sites and used 40% of last week’s 2,800 doses, he added.
COVID-19 vaccine doses are still prioritized for the first phase of people, whom Governor Newsom called “vaccinating vaccinators.”
Healthcare workers, emergency medical services, and staff and residents of long-term congregated care facilities may receive the vaccine.
The county is making good progress among those groups, officials said, and hopes to have information on appointments soon for the next phase of people 75 and older.
“We’re getting people to have hope, optimism and then the resilience to stay a little longer under public health order to control the virus,” Hart said.
The new coronavirus website of the Department of Public Health, publichealthsbc.org, contains information on the vaccination distribution plan and estimated deadlines.
“Currently, there are few details on how to register for appointments because the outreach has been specifically targeted at our healthcare community,” the Department of Public Health said Monday.
– Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be contacted . (You need JavaScript enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews i @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.