The COVID-19 pandemic showed no signs of slowing down in Santa Barbara County on Saturday as public health officials reported an additional 612 positive cases and three new deaths.
All three residents who died were in the age group over 70, and none of the deaths were associated with outbreaks in congregated facilities in the county, according to the COVID-19 data panel of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health. Two individuals had underlying health problems and lived in Santa Maria, and one individual was from Santa Barbara / Mission Canyon unincorporated area.
To date, 24,149 positive cases have been reported in the county since the first local case in March, the Department of Public Health said.
There have been 231 COVID-19-related deaths reported across the county since April. Santa Barbara County reported its first death from COVID-19 on April 1.
In January alone, so far, more than 70 county residents have died of COVID-19.
There were 89 adult ICU beds occupied, and 53.9% of them were occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the county’s online data panel.
ICU availability in the region of several Southern California countries remained at 0% on Saturday. The availability of adjusted ICU for Santa Bárbara County was 1.3%. The request to stay at home in California is triggered when the availability of the ICU drops to less than 15% in a region.
Of the new cases on Saturday, Santa Maria had 192, Santa Bárbara registered 113, Lompoc registered 51, the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area registered 34, Orcutt had 36, Goleta registered 32, and the unincorporated area of Vale do Goleta and Gaviota registered 27. There were 24 in the Santa Ynez Valley, 23 in the unincorporated areas of North County and seven in Isla Vista. Seventy-three were pending geographic location.
There were 196 patients confirmed with COVID-19 being treated at local hospitals, up from 192 the previous day. Of these, 48 residents were in intensive care units – four less than the day before.
There are 2,811 cases still considered infectious in Santa Barbara County, according to the Department of Public Health.
A total of 371,873 COVID-19 tests were administered in Santa Barbara County, according to Saturday’s daily status report. There were more than 3,990 COVID-19 tests reported in the county on Saturday.
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