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COVID-19 rates are climbing rapidly in Santa Barbara County and public health officials are urging residents to stay home for Thanksgiving, otherwise more deaths and hospitalizations are inevitable.
Due to a maintenance issue with the state’s notification system, county COVID data is only available until Saturday, when 95 new cases were reported – the highest number in a day since August . Sunday and Monday reports will be released Tuesday evening.
The surge in new cases comes two days after a statewide 10 p.m. curfew went into effect, banning gatherings or other activities outside the same home, and a week after Santa Barbara was brought down to the most restrictive purple level along with 40 other California. counties.
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Los Angeles County, one of 41 purple counties also under curfew, has gone further and has also banned outdoor dining in addition to indoor dining already banned in the purple level. When asked if Santa Barbara is going to follow suit – particularly in areas like the State Street Promenade – Jackie Ruiz, of public health, said it was not under consideration at this time.
But that doesn’t mean Los Angeles residents will flock to Santa Barbara for al fresco dining while on vacation.
Overall, there was no increase in hotel stays on the South Coast of Santa Barbara in November. The latest report from Visit Santa Barbara, which covers bookings for the week ending November 14, showed a 19% drop in hotel occupancy from last year. While Thanksgiving booking numbers won’t be available until next week, Kathy Janega-Dykes of Visit Santa Barbara said she heard anecdotally that “a lot of our hotels have had significant cancellations for this weekend – economic properties to luxury properties. ”
The county’s test positivity rate, a key metric in passing through the tier system, has risen steadily in recent weeks. The metric is defined as the percentage of tests reported positive over a seven day period. Some skeptics said the increased testing was a clear link to increased positivity, but Ruiz said the opposite.
Between the first and second week of November, the volume of tests was consistent at around 11,500 tests per week, she said. However, the positivity tests increased during this period from 2.4% to 3.2%. In addition, the case rate increased during this period. Currently it is 2.7%. The county’s adjusted case rate, or cases per 100,000 population over a seven-day period, is 7.1 to 0.1 above the red-level seven-case limit. On November 1, the number was 5.51, well in the 4-7 range of the red level.
The actions of the Santa Barbarans this holiday and beyond will not only affect hospitalizations and deaths, but it will also determine whether schools can reopen as planned or not. Schools in the area that have already made the switch to some form of in-person education may continue despite the level change because they have switched to in-person learning in a red level. For those who haven’t, it’s not that simple.
For the Santa Barbara and Goleta Union school districts, the county must be in the red level or better for two weeks on the week that school starts – January 19 and 11 respectively – for school to resume on campus. as expected. Otherwise, they will have to stay in distance learning models, but elementary schools will have a chance to get state waivers allowing them to reopen in small cohorts if the district so desires.
Westmont College is the most recent school to experience an outbreak, although several schools and colleges in the county have been affected so far. The university currently has two students who have tested positive and they are isolated on campus or at home. There are 19 students who may have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, so they are in quarantine on campus or at home. The college is awaiting the results of 15 tests that will release these students from quarantine.
The county’s death toll stands at 133 and there are currently 20 people in hospital, including three in an intensive care unit. Of the 95 new cases on Saturday, 40 of them were from Lompoc federal prison. Santa Barbara, the region with the second highest number of cases, had 11.
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