Edhat StaffSource: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) reports an additional 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county today. Three of the new cases are at the Federal Prison Complex in Lompoc, CA. One case reported previously was determined not to be a case. The total number of confirmed cases is 1371 of which 495 have fully recovered.
Although most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, PHD recommends additional measures to prevent exposure among vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions (such as diabetes, cancer, immunodeficiency, asthma, COPD and others). PHD recommends that residents, especially those who are vulnerable:
- Stay home except for essential tasks. Ensure you have a two-week supply of medication on hand.
- When engaging in essential tasks away from home, remain 6 feet away from others and wear a facial covering.
- Wash your hands with soap and water regularly.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Keep surfaces clean by wiping them down with a household disinfectant
Information for the 10 new confirmed cases can be found below.
Ages of new confirmed cases reported*:
| 0-17 | 0 |
| 18-29 | 3 |
| 30-49 | 1 |
| 50-69 | 3 |
| 70+ | 0 |
*Ages of new cases from the Federal Prison Complex are included in aggregate form on our website.
Locations of new cases reported:
| South County Unincorporated Area includes communities of Montecito, Summerland and the City of Carpinteria | 0 |
| City of Santa Barbara and the unincorporated area of Mission Canyon | 1 |
| City of Goleta | 1 |
| Community of Isla Vista | 0 |
| Unincorporated Area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota | 0 |
| Santa Ynez Valley including the Cities of Solvang & Buellton, and the communities of Santa Ynez, Los Alamos, Los Olivos and Ballard | 1 |
| City of Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village | 1 |
| Federal Prison Complex in Lompoc | 3 |
| City of Santa Maria | 3 |
| Community of Orcutt | 0 |
| Unincorporated Areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the City of Guadalupe | 0 |
Five hundred eighty-three people are recovering out of the hospital, 39 are recovering in a hospital, 10 of whom are in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 243 are pending an update. Eleven deaths have been reported.
Please visit Santa Barbara County’s coronavirus web page for other preparedness resources and updates at https://publichealthsbc.org/.
For general questions about COVID-19 and precautions currently recommended by Santa Barbara County Public Health, residents may call the Santa Barbara County COVID-19 Call Center at (833) 688-5551.
My earworm is Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”: It’s a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer :
(Leaving me) leaving me here on my own :
It’s a cruel, (it’s a cruel), cruel summer :
Now you’re gone…
Hunker down, everyone. Do not become complacent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSv4dYg-WMY
For the “open it up and come what may” crowd: The endgame is quite possibly that life for nearly everyone on the planet will be changed forever–whatever we do or don’t do. The virus itself will decide what happens, whichever path we take. If we “open up and let ‘er rip,” top scientists say there will be suffering and death that could have been prevented. They say there are also unknowable consequences, e.g., permanent health problems for those recovered, “relapses,” lack of immunity, etc. If we lift restrictions and completely “open up,” don’t count on that to magically solve economic woes. What happens when the virus then increases again? Not sure the economy will do great when doctors and nurses either get sick or quit, when hospitals get overwhelmed again, when employees get too sick to run the businesses that have been opened, or large numbers of customers are too cautious to come inside. The idea that we should allow the virus to spread widely in order to achieve herd immunity is not fair to health care providers and not fair to the people who will die of it. Even if you mistakenly think that because you are young you won’t get it too bad so to heck with everyone else, there will be repercussions for you when you find an “unrestricted world” where you can’t get medical care when you need it, can’t get proper food or supplies etc. On the other hand, if we continue to maintain some degree of physical distancing, isolation, meticulous sanitation, etc., we could well beat this virus back by depriving it of the human “food” it needs to continue. Even if the virus stays with us to some extent, economically we could eventually do fine with some changes in how we operate. People may need to be employed in new industries, or in their old jobs just doing things a different way, e.g., restaurants permanently becoming more hygienic, etc. We must accept there are realities such as climate change, world wars, plagues, “Pompeiian volcanos,” and other disastrous things that happen on a planet. In some cases, it is beyond human control to make things as they always were. But maybe some aspects of a new world will be good. We are all in this together, and we will all have to sacrifice something whether by our choice or the virus’ choice.
Can we please get a deeper dive into the current state of being for those who’ve been determined to have recovered? This whole catch and release policy is wildly annoying. Talk to them with well prepared questions on not only how they’re feeling but how they’re living. What is their circumstance? Diet? Opinion? Concern? Exposure? There is so much that can be learned here. However, it seems as if it’s just tossed into some lump sum basket of history.
So, to recap: there are hardly any cases and absolutely nothing to justify the continued mass hysteria. We panicked and wildly over reacted… and Iike a degenerate gambler Instead of acknowledging and walking away are doubling down on the dumb plan. There isn’t going to be a vaccine… it’s here for good and it’s a nasty sickness, but the answer isn’t to Hide in your room like bubble boy…
Ummm… Hospitals weren’t overrun… so they can’t be “overrun again” if they weren’t ever overrun. You are right though, it’s a sickness and it’s going to be here Awhile (probably forever)… but the answer to that isn’t to hide in our houses forever. The death rate has been wildly overrated … it’s roughly two to three times As deadly as the flu. So yes, wear a mask and wash your hands but other than that… life resumes and goes on as your plan of hiding in a bubble for The rest of time is crazy.
Or…work with me here…we did the exact right thing and it worked. Esp if you compare South Coast to, say, the Lompoc federal prison.
MM1970: If we did the right thing, what is the endgame? Where does isolation and distancing lead us? Sure, we have a limited number of cases in the county, but how do we defeat the virus? When can we go back to normal life? If we can’t do that soon, I don’t think we are doing the right thing. In a few weeks the Lompoc prison population will achieve herd immunity defeat the virus. The prison will be back to business as usual within weeks. I think there is a lot of merit in that approach. What about the rest of the county, how long will it take for us to resume normal life?
8:20 a.m. So to recap. It is now Jan 7 1942, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor a month ago and destroyed our Pacific Fleet and killed thousands of service members. But since that date our losses have been a lot less. Time to end the mass hysteria and go back to business as before. Please look around you. There are reports that people who were “cured” of this disease have fallen ill weeks later; there are increasing medical documentation of associated illnesses that are apparently COVID caused but not known for a long time; there are new reports of childhood deaths previously unsuspected; there is a continued high level of cases and deaths nationwide; there are outbreaks of the disease in nations that seemingly beat the disease back just a few weeks ago; 84,000 people in this country are known dead from the illness (and a sizeable percentage more if we include those who were not identified with COVID); the US has 25% of the world’s disease and death with but 5% of the world’s population; a minute portion of our population may have antibodies against the disease and there is no vaccine or treatment; all experience tells the doctors and scientists that the disease will make another run in our country soon. And more. Let’s up bite the bullet and do what is needed to avoid an even worst disaster.
I agree. I’ve heard that many in the “recovered” list have health issues they didn’t have before they got COVID including lung damage, brain damage, blood clots, amputations, strokes, intestinal issues, and more. Many of the conditions are permanent. A lot of people think the virus is no big deal because they see the high recovery numbers, and hear that a lot of the people who get it are asymptomatic. But blood clots and other internal physical symptoms are involved that just aren’t as easily detected as cough, fever, etc. The numbers in the “recovered” list just mean the people don’t have the active virus anymore. What’s missing is the list of any new conditions they’ll live with after recovering from COVID.
I agree Chip. I’ve been trying to get an answer from the stay at home forever crowd on what exactly their endgame looks like?
I am a scientist and a researcher, and I have problem with your statement that it, “might be prudent to review is what top scientists, doctors, researchers, etc. have to say.” It appears that you’re unaware that science is inherently contentious. Many top scientists, (researching) doctors, and researchers spend much of their lives disagreeing with their peers, as they argue the merits of their work and criticize the shortcoming of other’s. In fact, some of these people hate each other. To suggest that scientists, etc. are part of some hive mind, in total agreement on SARS-CoV-2, is just flat wrong.
Nobody here is advocating “hiding in a bubble for the rest of time.” That is not what I said or anyone else says. But you don’t need to re-read my post to figure it out. You don’t need to understand what I said, or care what I said. But what you might be prudent to review is what top scientists, doctors, researchers, etc. have to say. You might also want to study the history of past outbreaks, like the Spanish flu, and what has been effective in the past for devastating new diseases. You will probably find that “business as usual” did not work.
Nobody here is advocating “hiding in a bubble for the rest of time.” That is not what I said or anyone else says. But you don’t need to re-read my post to figure it out. You don’t need to understand what I said, or care what I said. But what you might be prudent to review is what top scientists, doctors, researchers, etc. have to say. You might also want to study the history of past outbreaks, like the Spanish flu, and what has been effective in the past for devastating new diseases. You will probably find that “business as usual” did not work in the past. Many think “business as usual” is even less likely to work with this troubling new virus we still know so little about.