Santa Barbara County hospitals are preparing to implement “crisis care,” as COVID-19 hospitalizations break records on a daily basis.
Crisis care means that people with urgent health care needs outside of COVID-19 may not receive the proper care they would normally expect, according to Dr. Henning Ansorg, county public health agent.
“As an example, if someone suffers a brain bleed and can be saved by an expert performing a procedure, this may no longer be possible or be available only because hospitals have an excessive reserve of patients with COVID,” he said. Ansorg at the COVID-19 press conference on Tuesday.
With a record 172 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Tuesday, 75% of hospital beds across the county were in use.
Of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, 55 require intensive care and 66.3% of ICU beds with county staff are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The county Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that 0% of ICU availability is “adjusted,” a level that the Southern California region has maintained for nearly three weeks. The actual availability of ICUs in the county is 8.4%.
County hospitals are running out of beds with ICUs and a few days ago they had to start using surge beds, public health director Van Do-Reynoso said. As of Tuesday, there were 12 overload beds in use, according to the county community data board.
“In the light of our current situation, I am lost. Honestly, I don’t know what to say anymore, ”Ansorg said, clearly exasperated that many people do not follow public health orders to avoid meetings and travel to reduce the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Do-Reynoso also made an update on the county’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, reporting that 54% of the 16,775 vaccines assigned to the county have already been administered to people eligible for the first phase.
In addition, Santa Barbara County Public Health received approval from the California Department of Public Health to proceed with vaccination of all three Phase 1A levels simultaneously, expediting the process. This includes most health care workers, staff and residents of skilled nursing centers, emergency medical services staff, and dialysis center staff.
Public Health has approved 42 suppliers to distribute doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and suppliers are increasing and working through logistics, Do-Reynoso said.
The county expects to triple the number of vendors distributing the vaccine in the coming weeks and, in general, vaccinate about 1,000 people a day in early February.
The vaccine is likely to be available to the general public in late March or April, according to Do-Reynoso.
Public health officials also reported 341 new cases of COVID-19 and seven additional deaths on Tuesday. All of the people who died were over 70 and four fatalities were associated with outbreaks in cohabitation facilities, according to Public Health.
Two individuals resided in Santa Bàrbara, two lived in Santa Maria, one was from Goleta, one lived in the unincorporated area of Goleta and one was from the Santa Ynez valley.
The cumulative COVID-19 death toll in the county since the pandemic began is 173.
The number of cases considered still infectious across the county has exceeded 2,000 and stood at 2,105 as of Tuesday. There have been 19,019 confirmed cases in Santa Barbara County since the pandemic began.
The test of positivity rates and daily case rates also reached record highs. The county shows a seven-day positivity rate of 17.3%.
| County of Santa Barbara | December 15th | December 22nd | December 29th | January 5th |
| New positive cases reported the previous week | 1,268 | 1,445 | 1,541 | 2,320 |
| New cases among health workers the previous week | 54 | 84 | 72 | 50 |
| Total test results reported the previous week | 17,532 | 18,243 | 15,753 | 12,681 |
| COVID-19 positive hospital patients | 78 | 103 | 127 | 172 |
| Active cases (still infectious after positive) | 1,059 | 1,245 | 1,227 | 2,105 |
| Cumulative deaths related to COVID-19 | 140 | 150 | 156 | 173 |
“All of these metrics are at the highest level that have ever existed since it began last March,” Do-Reynoso said.
The county is only now beginning to see the full effects of COVID-19 transmission during the Thanksgiving holidays, Ansorg said, and the impacts of traveling and meeting Christmas will be evident in the coming weeks.
In addition, there were 28 business outbreaks and 48 outreach-related outbreaks across the county during the month of December, Do-Reynoso said.
Business outbreaks occurred in a variety of industries, including agriculture, administration, retail, manufacturing, health care, cleaning services, skilled labor, restaurants, bars, grocery stores. groceries, hotels and construction.
“I can’t stress enough that this is really a call to action for all members of our community,” Do-Reynoso said. “Together we can improve and we need it.”
County information meetings are now held virtually, and public and county health officials appear via videoconference.
Tuesday’s briefing can be viewed on the Santa Barbara County Youtube page here, with English and Spanish versions.
– 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.