Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara County Board Supervisor Steve Lavagnino is quarantining due to COVID-19 while the county’s numbers continue to decrease.
Lavagnino stated a staff member has tested positive and he is quarantining in Santa Maria and will continue to attend meetings remotely.
Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) Director Van Do-Reynoso also provided an update on the virus in the county during the meeting.
Over the past week the county continues to see a decreasing trend in many regions, including Santa Maria and Lompoc. Although there is a slight uptick in Goleta, Isla Vista, Santa Ynez Valley, and the north county unincorporated.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 44%, med surges by 30% and intensive care stays by 71% said Do-Reynoso.
For the week of September 6-12, the county received a 6.7 rating in new cases and 4.3% testing positivity making the county eligible for the red tier. However, the focus will be on next week’s numbers as the county will need to stay in the red tier for two consecutive weeks before officially moving down.
If the numbers remain the same, Santa Barbara County would be eligible to move into the red tier on September 29. From there it would need to be officially assigned for the next 14 days before K-12 schools could reopen.
The state has approved twenty elementary schools to reopen within the county and are reviewing more applications.
More data on our current status can be found here: https://publichealthsbc.org
[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Supervisor Lavagnino tested positive for COVID-19]
Can Adam, that paragon of hygiene, be far behind?
Great! So we’ll pop into the lower tier and K-12 will still choose not to open as our school board definitely isn’t going to act on a “could open” (or a waiver as the numbers in SB, when you remove Lompoc/Santa Maria, have been low enough for quite some time!)
Duke, the difference between you and a teacher is that they have an option to perform their job remotely that puts them at less risk. Apparently you don’t. 60% of Americans have underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid disease (obesity, asthma, etc). If you were a teacher in a higher risk group, wouldn’t you push to do your job in a way to keep you safer? It is not optimal for the kids and their parents who have to be part teacher part day care provider, which is unfortunate. I don’t love the teachers union but I think most teachers work pretty hard at doing a tough job. They don’t get Social Security and their pensions average about 4K a month. That doesn’t seem too extreme to me. Are you really so set against teachers after seeing this info?
You couldn’t be more right Pitmix. Teachers (via the union) have a choice…have an easier and better work situation with the same pay or go back to your job. And you are right, virtually everyone would choose option A. Teachers are special though so only they get that option. Nevermind that doing their job in person is absolutely critical to a huge portion of the population, they don’t feel safe and the union has the green light to hold the population over a barrel because of it. So yes Pitmix, with each passing day I do become more and more “set against” teachers and their union. The hypocrisy is staggering. I was at the Home Depot today… Coscto yesterday… Ralphs on Sunday, Staples Saturday and a lot of other stores over the last week. You know what I saw…a lot of people working. A lot of older people working. I saw a lot of kids out and about. So no…I don’t think teachers are special beyond the fact that they provide one of the most essential in person jobs we have. But they have no incentive to open. They hired 21 new teachers (GUSD) and took many millions from the CARES act that was allocated for schools to open. But they wont open. I don’t understand/get how anyone who isn’t a teacher could be OK with this. I get why my cousin teacher is OK with it…they are a teacher and are getting the same pay for wildly less time. Time they get to spend with their family. I get it…If I could spend more time with my family and not have to commute to work for the exact same amount of money I would almost always take it (note: almost always…last week I’d have taken wildly less money to work more as the 6th grader was on the war path…I was considering adding a night job!). A safe return in a reduced capacity would be easy for the Goleta Schools…that the teachers, school board and school admin aren’t pursuing that is terrible! It’s not crazy…in fact it makes total logical sense in a highly self centered way. Let’s hope some pressure comes in some capacity so that this most essential service resumes…
28 yr old doctor that just died in Houston doesn’t agree with your assessment. But your willingness to put teachers at risk is very courageous.
PitMix – I have asked this of you many times, why are teachers the only ones that are so essential they cant work? Do you only care about teachers and not your bus drivers, grocery workers, lifeguards, police, fire department, parks department, verizon store employees, Habit/Cucas/Los Agaves/Every other restaurant employees? Virtually everything in some capacity is open…and now that we’re about to be officially in the red, EVERYTHING CAN OPEN! Why aren’t schools progressing towards that? Seems pretty clear to me it’s your beloved teachers union…
And taking your thought excercise/argument a step further…we better get rid of cars, bikes, skate boards, food items you can choke on, etc RIGHT NOW…because those are dangerous things that will kill a 28 year old, 88 year old and 8 year old today. So no, we’re not talking about courage in any capacity here…we’re talking about a local government failing it’s people because of the teachers union demands (as well as just a general inability to solve or do anything in the case of the Goleta School Board). I’m at risk going to work today Pitmix in a job that interacts with dozens of different people every day…as I have every single Monday through Friday (and many Saturday and Sundays) this year. I guess I’m not as special as a teacher though…
Duke, you have strong opinions but rarely do I see you putting any numbers to back up your hypotheses. Info about stay at home workers is easy to find. 40% of us are working from home and are not expected to go back until there is a vaccine that has been widely used in the US. Next March at the earliest. The people you are seeing have frontline jobs that cannot be done at home. They are also the ones getting sick and dying at the highest rates. The teacher situation is personal to you, I get it, but I also get that teachers are afraid and would rather do virtual teaching until it is pretty safe for them to go back to live classrooms.
Which hypothesis? Do you mean the hypothesis that teachers are essential workers? That the teachers union is wildly hypocritical as they are ensuring that (at least in GUSD) teachers and administrators have on-site school for their kids while ensuring everyone else doesnt? My hypothesis that isn’t a health/safety issue and that it’s all about leverage and how teachers don’t have to come back till probably January, and will probably do so with extra money and concessions they were able to extract? You obviously haven’t listened or watched any of the school board meetings, which I don’t blame you…they are mind numbing exercises in futility and bureaucratic insanity. Why anyone would sign up for that job is beyond me, and should be viewed quite skeptically. Ultimately though, your right…it doesn’t matter. Private schools and rich kid public schools will provide an extra 3 -6 months of schooling, which in the grand scheme doesn’t really matter. We’ll all get through it. Eventually some government entity will tell schools that they have to return. Not “can” return…but “MUST”. And we’ll go back. The money lost that could have been used for so much good will instead be a bill that requires much to be cut and less to be done for the collective good. We were supposed to shelter in place so as not to over run the hospitals…are you seriously proposing/suggesting we shelter in place till March (or at least let the teachers do that)?