With a surge in COVID-19 after the holidays, the spread of the virus in Santa Barbara County is the highest province in California.
Van Do-Reynoso, director of public health in Santa Barbara County, spoke at the weekly press conference on Friday, explaining the reasoning behind the latest data and how the country is in a serious emergency amid the raging pandemic.
“The spread of COVID-19 is higher in Santa Barbara County than any other jurisdiction in California,” Do-Reynoso said. “These are grim numbers – extremely, extremely worrying.”
The country’s effective reproduction number, also called R-effective, is the average number of people each infected person will transmit the virus, and it represents the rate at which COVID-19 spreads, according to the California Department of Public Health. The average R-effective number of usage estimates from Covid Act Now, says the state’s website.
COVID-19 will spread “exponentially” if the R is effectively greater than one, and the virus will “spread more slowly and cases will decrease” if the number is less than one, Do-Reynoso said. As of Friday night, the CDPH has estimated that the province’s number is the highest at 1.27.
Do-Reynoso said the country is experiencing the effects of extensive gatherings, travel, and mixing and mixing during the holidays two weeks into the new year.
“Since the holidays, the numbers have grown exponentially,” she said, noting that the country’s COVID-19 statistics are ‘extremely high’.
There have been 3,309 new cases in the country in the past seven days, averaging 472.7 cases per day. In the previous seven days, the province recorded 2,561 new cases, averaging 365.9 cases per day.
There have been 2,786 active cases in the country, and the number has tripled in active cases since the holiday, ‘Do-Reynoso said.
The province’s total number of COVID-19 admissions and patients with intensive care units “has quadrupled since the holidays,” Do-Reynoso said, adding that the province’s positive testing for COVID-19 is about 16% – a doubling rate since the holidays.
Santa Barbara County will begin vaccinating residents 75 years or older next Wednesday, but there is a limited amount of COVID-19 vaccine and people may not receive an appointment immediately.
According to the province, there are more than 32,000 provincial residents aged 75 or older.
California officials have at this stage expanded access to residents 65 years or older, but they will be vaccinated as soon as more vaccines become available from the state. Click here for more information.
New cases COVID-19
Public health officials reported another 364 COVID-19 cases and five new deaths on Friday.
To date, the province’s total number of positive COVID-19 cases has been 23,538 and related deaths 228.
Four of the individuals who died were over 70, and one was between the ages of 50 and 69, according to the Department of Public Health.
Three had underlying medical conditions, and one death was accompanied by an outbreak in a community facility. Two lived in Santa Maria, two lived in Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village, and one lived in Orcutt. Officials group some geographical areas in the daily COVID-19 provincial reports.
192 confirmed COVID-19 patients were treated in local hospitals, a decrease of 197 the previous day. Of these, 52 were in the intensive care unit – one less than the previous day. There were 89 crew members for ICU beds for adults in use, and more than 58% of them were occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the province’s online data dashboard.
ICU availability in the Southern California region in multilands stood at 0% on Friday. Adapted ICU availability in Santa Barbara County rose slightly to 1.3%.
Local hospitals care for an “increasing number of people who are sick enough to need hospital care,” the provincial public health officer, dr. Henning Ansorg, said. “We expect this trend to probably last until February.”
Most COVID-19 hospitalizations are among Santa Barbara County residents in the 40-50 age group, Ansorg said Friday.
“Even young and otherwise healthy people can become seriously ill with this virus,” Ansorg said.
Sue Andersen, president / CEO of Marian Regional Medical Center, said the hospital was experiencing a COVID-19 surge “bigger than we’ve seen so far.”
Marian drew up his training plans and used additional space: ‘we were just preparing for such situations’, Andersen said.
Of the new cases Friday, Santa Barbara had 120, Santa Maria counted 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 the Goleta Valley and Gaviota. Ten each were reported in Orcutt and the unincorporated areas of Northern County and Guadalupe. Four were in Isla Vista, and 23 cases depend on geographical location.
Twenty-eight extra inmates and nine extra staff in the sheriff’s department in Santa Barbara County, according to sheriff’s spokesman Raquel Zick, tested positive for COVID-19 this week. This brings the total number of inmates in the main prison who tested positive to 154 and a total of 97 sheriff’s employees have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
“Five of the inmates were tested positive during the inquest, and two have since been released from custody,” Zick said. “The remaining 23 are part of an outbreak currently being managed in one of the residential units in the main prison.”
Prisoners in the associated housing areas were screened and tested for COVID-19, Zick said.
“All COVID-19 positive prisoners are housed in oppressed areas or housed separately from the general population,” she said. “All affected housing areas are quarantined and closely monitored by medical personnel.”
There are 49 inmates with an active case of COVID-19 in the main jail, Zick said Friday.
Meanwhile, a staff member at the Santa Maria Juvenile Hall in the province’s probation department and a staff member at the Los Prietos Boys Camp tested positive for COVID-19, according to Karyn Milligan, a public information officer for the probation department.
One youth also tested positive when he was booked at SMJH, Milligan said Friday. The youth experience ‘minor symptoms’ and ‘are housed in a medical observation unit used specifically for positive COVID-19 adolescents.’
According to Milligan, identified personnel have been tested as a precaution, and their results are negative for COVID-19.
An increase in positive cases during the discussion appears to show how widespread COVID-19 is in the community, Milligan said.
“It is noteworthy that the last four youths discussed in SMJH have all tested positive for COVID-19,” Milligan said. “The youth are by no means connected, they come from different regions of the province, including northern, southern and mid-provinces.”
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– The author of the Noozhawk staff, Brooke Holland, can be reached (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Get in touch with Noozhawk on Facebook.