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By Edhat staff
The Santa Barara County Public Health Department (PHD) reported that the county may be able to go red as early as this Friday.
During Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, PHD Director Dr Van Do-Reynoso explained state-wide changes to the ‘Safer Economy Action Plan’ metrics that incorporate vaccination rates.
California has relaxed thresholds for color-coded levels that will allow more areas to reopen based on the number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in communities that have been hardest hit by the virus.
The state uses the Healthy Places Index (HPI), which uses various data points such as economy, education, housing, etc. that determine health outcomes. The more than 1,650 California zip codes have been divided into four quarters based on the HPI index, generally higher scores correlate with higher household incomes and lower scores with lower incomes.
When California hits 2 million vaccines in the HPI quartile 1, the highest “prevalent” purple level will drop from 7 cases per 100,000 population to 10 cases per 100,000 population. This means that if the 2 million mark were reached today, Santa Barbara County would be eligible to move to the less restrictive “substantial” red level.
On Monday, the state calculated that 1.875 million doses had been administered, bringing the 2 million mark up by Friday or early next week due to the current volume of vaccine distribution. Dr Do-Reynoso called this “wonderful news” and said the tier assignments would then take place the next day instead of having to wait until Tuesday.
The next threshold is that of 4 million vaccinations which then widens the “moderate” orange level allowing a rate of 2 to 5.9 cases per 100,000 compared to the previous threshold of 1 to 3.9.
Santa Barbara County had an adjusted case rate of 9.7 per 100,000 population on Tuesday, up from 10.9. This puts the county in the purple level until the state hits the 2 million vaccine threshold. The current test positivity is 3.6 and health equity is 5.1, both of which meet the red level requirements.
Immunization efforts
Santa Barbara County received a 39% increase in COVID-19 vaccines this week, including the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Last week the county received 9,080 doses and this week 12,580 doses.
The county follows state guidelines for the 70/30 distribution model. People aged 65 and over will receive 70% of the vaccine supply, while other eligible sectors will receive 30%. Of the 30%, about 33% of vaccine appointments are open to educators, 31% to food and agriculture, 16% is a hybrid of food / agriculture and emergency services due to a combined clinic, 15% for educators and 5% for emergency medical services.
PHD is awaiting advice from the state on when it can lower the 65-year age restriction and lower it further.
Public health worker Dr Ansorg also said reluctance to vaccinate on the part of trained nurses had improved a lot. Last month, it was reported that only 30% of staff in this sector had been vaccinated, the majority worrying about the side effects of the vaccine and false rumors posted on social media.
Dr Ansorg said 70 to 80 percent of all skilled nurses in the county have been vaccinated. He attributes the increase to awareness and people who feel more reassured after seeing their peers get vaccinated.
Supervisor Das Williams expressed concern for people trying to skip the line to get the vaccine and recalls that some people are still at risk of dying from the virus.
“I urge people not to use getting back to normal as their main motivator and to think about healthy pubs and make economic activity and economic survival the priority. And most important to me is our schools and our children the well-being, learning and future of mental health is secured before we are motivated by taking the hassle out of ourselves, ”said Williams.
New CDC recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released new interim recommendations for people who are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As he points out, fully vaccinated people can visit other fully vaccinated people indoors, without a mask or from a distance. Fully vaccinated people can visit unvaccinated people in the same household with those at low risk of serious complications, indoors and without masks or distances. Fully vaccinated people can refrain from quarantine and testing after being exposed to someone known to be COVID-19 positive who was asymptomatic.
Fully vaccinated people should:
- Continue to wear masks and physically move away in public, when visiting unvaccinated people who are at increased risk, when visiting unvaccinated people from multiple households.
- Avoid medium to large in-person gatherings
- Get tested if you have COVID-19 syptoms
- Continue to follow employers’ advice
- Follow CDC and local PHD travel restrictions.
COVID-19 numbers
Santa Barbara County recorded its first case of COVID-19 on March 15, 2020, almost a year ago. Dr Do-Reynoso said the county has experienced peaks and valleys since then with two significant surge periods.
The first outbreak occurred in May 2020 and the second in December 2020 / January 2021, the latter being the largest and longest in the pandemic. Since January 13, 2021, the county has experienced a downward trend.
From February 22 to March 8, 2021, active cases declined by around 40%, which is “very good news,” said Dr Do-Reynoso.
The county’s first death occurred on April 4, 2020 and since then 424 community members have died from COVID-19. Over the past two weeks, deaths have increased by 7%. During the same period, hospitalizations decreased by 38% and intensive care unit (ICU) stays decreased by 12%.
As of this week, 71,851 county residents have been vaccinated. Of these, 50% are fully vaccinated.
More data can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org/status-reports/
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