Although it has reached the red level, Santa Barbara County is facing difficulties

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif .– It has been some time since Santa Barbara County reached the state’s red reopening level.

This week we saw restaurants, museums and gyms reopen indoors for the first time since fall.

The step in the right direction also gave high schools the green light to return to the classroom.

“We appreciate the opening of various businesses and locations in our county,” said director of public health Van Do-Reynoso.

The vaccine distribution has also picked up the pace thanks to a general effort.

“Week after week, we continue to see a very high percentage of vaccines being given,” Do-Reynoso said.

“The public health department, along with our healthcare partners, are doing everything we can to get the vaccine distributed to anyone who wants it as quickly as possible,” added public health official Henning. Ansorg.

Youth sports are now booming across the county.

However, this has brought new challenges as all athletes and coaches – playing football and water polo – are required to take COVID-19 tests every week.

Tonight, the Big Game between Santa Barbara and San Marcos has been canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test result.

“Over the past week we have seen many positive cases of athletes from several schools,” Ansorg said. “This concerns us.”

Regarding the number of fans in the stands, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department will not be enforcing the one person per state athlete rule.

Allow only immediate household members to observe youth sporting events

“We looked at state guidelines,” Do-Reynoso said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t make sense to us either.”

As coronavirus cases continue to decline, local health experts aim to hit the least restrictive orange level.

“If we stop masking and distancing too early, we could easily risk a further increase in cases,” Ansorg concluded.

Today, spring break has started for many public schools that have just reopened.

Next week will therefore be a real test, to see how these students are doing when they come back to class.