Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara County remains “solidly” in the red tier with case rates preventing fewer restrictions, mostly due to gatherings.
During a press conference on Friday afternoon, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso stated the case rate metric is holding the county back from moving into the less restrictive orange tier. Santa Barbara County’s case rate is currently at 4.6 and needs to be at 3.9 or lower to qualify for orange. All other metrics meet the necessary requirements.
The majority of positive cases are due to “community close contact transmission,” most of which end up being gatherings.
While officials were proud of Isla Vista community members for safely celebrating Halloween, they expressed their frustration with high school students in Orcutt who gathered at a party and spread COVID-19 shutting down one school.
There are two known COVID-19 positive students which prompted St. Joseph’s High School to close in-person learning for two weeks and Righetti High School sports practices to temporarily cease.
The Public Health Department will release guidelines next week on how to safely celebrate Thanksgiving.
The Numbers
The total COVID-19 cases within the county are now at 10,128 with 136 still active. Of those, there are 12 hospitalizations including two in the intensive care unit (ICU)
This week there have been 3 deaths related to COVID-19.
One individual was over 70 years old, did not have underlying medical conditions and resided in the unincorporated area of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the City of Guadalupe. The death was not associated with an outbreak in a congregate facility.
One individual was between the ages of 50-69, had underlying medical conditions and lived in the region of the City of Santa Barbara and unincorporated area of Mission Canyon. The death was not associated with an outbreak at a congregate living facility.
One individual was a resident of the community of Orcutt, was over 70 years old with underlying medical conditions and was associated with an outbreak at a congregate facility.
The total death count is now 131.
More data can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org/status-reports/
Two points. 1) We are not “solidly” in the red tier with case rates preventing fewer restrictions. The adjusted case rates for the past 4 weeks (from past to most recent) are 4.2, 4,3, 4.4, and 4.6. The unadjusted rates are 4.3, 4.8, 4.9, and 5.2. It’s clear we’re moving back up towards 7.0, which is the purple “widespread” tier. 2) It’s not quite true that the majority of positive cases are due to “community close contact transmission”. Right now Community Close Contact cases are 3,511, Community Contact cases are 2,322, Unknown are 3,094, Under Investigation are 163, and Travel is 12. The total is 10,128. 3, 511 Community Close Contact cases is only 34.6% of all cases and definitely not the majority of positive cases.
What word would you have preferred there instead of “solidly”? I mean, low 4’s could obviously be called “barely” in the red tier or “on the cusp” of orange… “solidly” is seemingly a word that doesn’t convey how close to Orange we are… so I agree… switch it to “BARELY”! And if we can take out Santa Maria/orcutt… we are “basically” orange… no?
Also of note, as per the release, via all other metrics we are in the orange.
I think for things like school you have to take out Lompoc, Santa Maria and orcutt… and that to me isn’t debatable! There is much more local day to day overlap and integration with Ventura than with Santa Maria… it’s an arbitrary line that is important for resources but is meaningless for neighborhood schools.
And the trending is pretty minimal… we’re talking a fluctuation within the very bottom of red (4.2 to 4.9). We’re close to orange… just slightly less so…
USA: The pandemic is over, didn’t you hear? There are crowds gathering in the streets across the nation to celebrate the Biden/Harris victory. CNN and MSNBC is no longer describing these political events as “super-spreaders”…they’re now calling them “joyous” and “inspirational”. Biden already made good on his promise to beat COVID, so you can relax now.
Over 100,000 new cases every day in the US for the past 3 days, over 1,140 deaths yesterday. We are breaking records, in a bad way, daily.. Some here think Santa Barbara is protected by a magic bubble. With more travelers to SB now, people traveling and being in close quarters over the holidays – and with people acting like there isn’t a pandemic we are sure to climb in cases.