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With a surge of COVID-19 after the holidays, the spread of the virus in Santa Barbara County is the highest of all counties in California.
Speaking at Friday’s weekly press conference, Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso explained the rationale behind this latest data and how the county is in dire straits in the midst of the raging pandemic.
“The rate of spread of COVID-19 is higher in Santa Barbara County than in any other jurisdiction in California,” Do-Reynoso said. “These are grim numbers – extremely, extremely worrying.”
The county’s effective reproduction number, also known as R-effective, is the average number of people each infected person will transmit the virus to, and it represents the rate of spread of COVID-19, according to the California Department of Public Health. The average effective R-number uses estimates from Covid Act Now, the state website says.
COVID-19 spreads “exponentially” if the R-effective is greater than one, and the virus spreads “more slowly and cases decline” if the number is less than one, Do-Reynoso said. On Friday night, the CRPD estimated the county’s number to be the highest in the state at 1.27.
Do-Reynoso said that two weeks after the start of the new year, the county was suffering the consequences of a rally, travel, mix and mix during the holidays.
“Since the holidays, the numbers have increased exponentially,” she said, noting the county’s COVID-19 parameters are “extremely high”.
There have been 3,309 new cases in the past seven days in the county, for an average of 472.7 cases per day. In the previous seven days, the county recorded 2,561 new cases, an average of 365.9 cases per day.
There were 2,786 active cases across the county as of Friday, and that number is “about triple the active cases since before the holidays,” Do-Reynoso said.
The total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and patients in the county’s intensive care units “has quadrupled since the holidays,” Do-Reynoso said, adding that the county’s testing for COVID-19 was positive. ‘around 16% – a rate that has doubled since the holidays. .
Santa Barbara County will begin vaccinating residents aged 75 or older next Wednesday, but the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is limited and people may not be given an immediate appointment.
There are more than 32,000 county residents aged 75 or older, depending on the county.
California authorities have expanded eligibility to residents aged 65 or older at this point, but vaccinations will begin for them as soon as more vaccines become available in the state. Click here for more information.
New COVID-19 cases
Public health officials on Friday reported 364 more cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths.
To date, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the county is 23,538 and related deaths 228.
Four of those who died were over 70 and one was between 50 and 69, according to the Department of Public Health.
Three had underlying health issues and one death was associated with an outbreak in a collective facility. Two resided in Santa Maria, two lived in Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village, and one resided in Orcutt. County officials are consolidating certain geographic areas in their daily COVID-19 county reports.
There were 192 confirmed COVID-19 patients treated at local hospitals, a decrease from 197 the day before. Of those, 52 were in the intensive care unit – one less than the day before. According to the county’s online data dashboard, 89 adult intensive care beds were in use, and more than 58% of those were occupied by patients with COVID-19.
The availability of intensive care in the multinational southern California region was 0% on Friday. Santa Barbara County’s adjusted critical care availability edged up to 1.3%.
Local hospitals are caring for an “ever-increasing number of people sick enough to require hospital care,” said Dr Henning Ansorg, county public health official. “We expect this trend to probably last until February.”
The majority of COVID-19-related hospitalizations are in Santa Barbara County residents between the ages of 40 and 50, Ansorg said on Friday.
“Even young and healthy people can be seriously ill from this virus,” Ansorg said.
Sue Andersen, president and CEO of Marian Regional Medical Center, said the hospital was experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19 “greater than what we’ve seen to date.”
Marian has implemented her surge plans and is using extra bed space “we’ve only prepared for these kinds of situations,” Andersen said.
Of Friday’s new cases, Santa Barbara had 120, Santa Maria had 85, and Lompoc and the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area were reporting 31. There were 19 in Goleta, 16 in the Santa Ynez Valley, and 15 in the unincorporated area of Goleta. Valley and Gaviota. Ten have been reported each in Orcutt and the unincorporated areas of North County and Guadalupe. Four were in Isla Vista and 23 cases were awaiting geographic location.
Twenty-eight other inmates and nine other staff from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department tested positive for COVID-19 this week, according to Raquel Zick, the sheriff’s spokesperson. This brings the total number of inmates at the main prison who have tested positive to 154, and a total of 97 sheriff’s employees have tested positive for COVID-19 to date.
“Five of the inmates tested positive on admission screening, and two have since been released,” Zick said. “The remaining 23 are part of an outbreak currently being managed in one of the main prison housing units.”
Inmates in associated living areas have been screened and offered to be tested for COVID-19, Zick said.
“All COVID-19 positive inmates are either housed in negative pressure housing or separated from the general population,” she said. “All affected residential areas are quarantined and closely monitored by medical staff.”
There are 49 inmates with an active case of COVID-19 in the main prison, Zick said on Friday.
Meanwhile, a staff member at the Santa Maria Juvenile Hall of the county probation department and a staff member at the Los Prietos Boys Camp have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Karyn Milligan, the department’s public information officer. probation.
A youngster also tested positive when signing up for SMJH, Milligan said on Friday. The young person “experiences minor symptoms” and “is housed in a medical observation unit specially used for young people positive for COVID-19”.
After conducting contact tracing efforts with the virus, Milligan said, identified staff were tested as a precaution and their results returned negative for COVID-19.
An increase in positive cases when booking appears to demonstrate just how prevalent COVID-19 is in the community, Milligan said.
“It should be noted that the last four young people registered with the SMJH have all tested positive for COVID-19,” said Milligan. “The young people are in no way related, they come from different parts of the county, including the northern, southern and central parts of the county.”
Click here to read stories in the Noozhawk Coronavirus Crisis section.
– Brooke Holland, editor of Noozhawk, can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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