With the rise of a COVID-19 peak after the holiday, 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 for Santa Barbara County, Van Do-Reynoso, explained the reasoning behind the latest data and how the county is in trouble in the midst of the pandemic.
“The spread rate of COVID-19 is higher in Santa Barbara County than in any other jurisdiction in California,” said Do-Reynoso. “These are dismal numbers – extremely, extremely worrying.”
The county’s effective reproductive number, also called R-effective, is the average number of people each infected person will pass the virus to and represents the spread rate of COVID-19, 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-effective is greater than one, and the virus will spread “more slowly and cases will decrease” if the number is less than one, said Do-Reynoso. On Friday night, the CDPH estimated the county number to be the highest in the state, 1.27.
Do-Reynoso said that two weeks after the beginning of the year, the county is suffering the consequences of many meetings, travel, mixing and living together during the holidays.
“Since the holidays, the numbers have grown exponentially,” she said, noting that the county’s COVID-19 metrics are “extremely high.”
In the last seven days, 3,309 new cases occurred in the municipality, for an average of 472.7 cases per day. In the last seven days, the municipality recorded 2,561 new cases, which is an average of 365.9 cases per day.
There were 2,786 active cases across the county on Friday, and that number is “roughly a tripling of active cases since before the holidays,” said Do-Reynoso.
The total number of COVID-19 admissions and patients in county intensive care units “has increased fourfold since the holidays,” said Do-Reynoso, adding that the positivity of the county test for COVID-19 is about 16% – a rate that doubles since the holidays. .
Santa Barbara County will begin vaccinating residents 75 and older next Wednesday, but there is limited supply of the COVID-19 vaccine and people may not receive an immediate consultation.
There are more than 32,000 residents in the county aged 75 or older, according to the county.
California authorities have expanded eligibility for residents 65 and over at this stage, but vaccinations will begin for them as soon as more vaccines are available in the state. Click here for more info.
New COVID-19 Cases
Public health officials reported on Friday 364 additional cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths.
To date, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the county is 23,538 and related deaths are 228.
Four of the individuals who died were over 70 and one was between 50 and 69, according to the Department of Public Health.
Three had underlying medical conditions and one death was associated with an outbreak in a congregated facility. Two lived in Santa Maria, two lived in Lompoc and in the Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village communities and one lived in Orcutt. County officials group some geographic areas in their county’s COVID-19 daily reports.
There were 192 patients confirmed with COVID-19 being treated at local hospitals, down from 197 the previous day. Of these, 52 were in the intensive care unit – one less than the day before. There were 89 adult ICU beds with staff in use, and more than 58% 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 was 0% on Friday. The adjusted availability of ICUs in Santa Bárbara County increased slightly to 1.3%.
Local hospitals are caring for “an increasing number of people who are sick enough to require hospital care,” said county public health officer Dr. Henning Ansorg. “We anticipate that this trend is likely to last until February.”
Most COVID-19 hospitalizations occur among residents of Santa Barbara County aged 40-50, Ansorg said on Friday.
“Even young, healthy people can become seriously ill with this virus,” said Ansorg.
Sue Andersen, president / CEO of Marian Regional Medical Center, said the hospital is experiencing a peak in COVID-19 “greater than what we’ve seen so far”.
Marian has implemented its peak plans and is using the additional bed space “which we only prepare for this type of situation,” said Andersen.
Of the new Friday cases, Santa Bárbara had 120, Santa Maria registered 85 and both Lompoc and the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area reported 31. There were 19 in Goleta, 16 in the Santa Ynez Valley and 15 in the unincorporated area of Goleta Vale and Gaviota. Ten of each were reported in Orcutt and in the unincorporated areas of North County and Guadeloupe. Four were in Isla Vista and 23 cases were pending geographic location.
Twenty-eight additional prisoners and nine additional Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department employees tested positive for COVID-19 this week, according to Raquel Zick, the sheriff’s spokesman. This brings the total number of Main Prison inmates tested positive to 154, and a total of 97 sheriff employees have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
“Five of the inmates tested positive during the admission screening, and two have already been released from custody,” said Zick. “The remaining 23 are part of an outbreak that is being managed in one of the housing units on the Main Chain.”
Inmates in the associated housing areas were selected and tested for COVID-19, said Zick.
“All positive COVID-19 inmates are housed in negative pressure housing areas or housed separately from the general population,” she said. “All affected residential areas are being quarantined and closely monitored by the medical team.”
There are 49 inmates with an active case of COVID-19 in the Main Jail, Zick said on Friday.
Meanwhile, a team member from the Santa Maria Juvenile Hall of the County Probation Department and a team member from the Los Prietos Boys Camp tested positive for COVID-19, according to Karyn Milligan, public information officer for the Probation Department.
A young man also tested positive when registered with SMJH, said Milligan on Friday. The young man is “experiencing mild symptoms” and “is being housed in a medical observation unit used specifically for COVID-19 positive young people”.
After carrying out virus contact tracking efforts, said Milligan, the identified team was tested as a precaution and its results returned negative for COVID-19.
An increase in positive cases during the reservation appears to demonstrate how widespread COVID-19 is in the community, said Milligan.
“It is important to note that the last four youths registered with SMJH have tested positive for COVID-19,” said Milligan. “Young people are not connected in any way, they are from different areas of the municipality, including the northern, southern and central regions of the municipality.”
Click here to read the stories in the Noozhawk Coronavirus Crisis section.
– Brooke Holland, editor of the Noozhawk team, can be reached at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.