Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara County lays out guidelines for a detailed plan to reopen the economy while the Public Health Department (PHD) releases demographic data of the positive COVID-19 cases.
During Tuesday morning’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso shared a series of graphs depicting the latest numbers of the cases throughout the county. The overall data shows a disproportionate number of cases in Hispanic communities.
Based on Monday’s total of 416 cases, the Lompoc area represents 40% of cases, however, the majority of those numbers are related to the outbreak at the federal prison. Santa Maria accounts for 24% of cases while Santa Barbara follows at 11%. The outbreak at the Lompoc Prison is about 30% of all confirmed cases in the county with 23% of those representing employees and 77% inmates. The cases are distributed throughout all age groups. The two largest groups are ages 30-49 with 35% and ages 50-69 with 36%.
Of the 416 cases, PHD was able to interview 307 people to formulate data trends. Of the 307 interviewees, 221 are residents and 86 are inmates at the Lompoc prison. For the purpose of highlighting relevant information, only the larger percentages will be reported below.
Significant numbers were presented in terms of race and ethnicity. For the non-prison population, 221 residents, 61% identified their race or ethnicity as Hispanic, and 31% as white. Of the prison population, 48% identified as Hispanic and 43% white. Overall, 54% identified as Hispanic and 24% identified as white. In terms of communication, 77% reported English as their primary language with 19% reporting Spanish.
The data shows the Latino/Hispanic community represents a disproportionately higher number of cases compared to their representation in Santa Barbara County’s population. As testing expands and data collection progresses, the distribution by race and ethnicity for cases may change, said Dr. Do-Reynoso. PHD plans to continue outreach to community members whose primary language is Spanish.
The majority of interviewees, 90%, stated they have some form of health insurance with 84% of the total stating they have access to a healthcare provider. PHD will continue conducting outreach and enrollment efforts to those who are uninsured.
For household size, 53% or respondents lived in as household of three to five individuals with 31% living by themselves or with one other person. The median annual income is $50,000 – 75,000 for 19% of respondents, approximately 24% earned below that amount and 26% earned above that amount. In terms of education level, 36% reported some college or technical training from one to three years.
Based on the data analysis, PHD will continue messages about physical distancing and hand washing, as well as partner with businesses and worksite to ensure optimal physical distancing. The majority of respondents, 93%, understood the importance of regular handwashing and were able to practice it before they were sick.
Additionally, 48% understood the importance of physical distancing and were able to practice it. However, Dr. Do-Reynoso stated it’s concerning the rest of the nearly 50% of respondents either did not understand the importance of physical distancing, or they understood the importance but were unable to practice it. 38% of respondents stated its not possible to socially distance at home as well as 36% reporting it’s not possible at work.
Looking at the overall percentages of confirmed cases thus far, Santa Barbara County has a lower number than predicted in the models. This is due to Governor Newsom’s executive order and efforts by the community to socially distance, said Dr. Do-Reynoso.
However, the number of active cases is still increasing adding a potential for the spread of the virus. There needs to be a consistent decrease in overall cases and hospitalizations over a 14 day period to enact policy changes, said Dr. Do-Reynoso.
Following the Governor’s Roadmap of six indicators needed to reopen the economy, the PHD is working to address each indicator. The first point is they are actively negotiating an increase in testing capacity and anticipate an update later this week. They are also working on contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine services to support positive cases.
The second point is working on identifying vulnerable groups and offering testing to make sure support services are in place. The third item is to be in constant communication with healthcare partners to address any potential surges. For the fourth point, develop therapeutics to meet demand, PHD will look to the Governor’s office for support.
PHD is currently in the planning stages with all stakeholders to outline physical distancing measures in businesses, schools, and child care facilities as the fifth point. And for the sixth point, determining when to reinstitute certain measures such as stay at home orders, PHD will look to the Governor and state authorities for guidance while discussing with neighboring counties.
The Economic Reopening Plan Development is estimating four to six weeks to be finalized with a presentation ready for the Board of Supervisors. Their plan outlines the following:
- Organize a project team to develop a strategic plan for a phased reopening
- Engage REACH (a tri-county planning group) to assist with the plan and facilitate stakeholder collaboration efforts
- Identify participants and form Countywide Stakeholder Team related to government, schools and business industries
- Draft a document and engage Stakeholder Team for comments
- Finalize Road Map to Phased Reopening for Public Health Director
- Present to the Board of Supervisors
Dr. Do-Reynoso expressed the PHD wants to be consistent with its policies in terms of what is and isn’t allowable. When compared to San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties, she said Santa Barbara’s rates and numbers are different and they’re in conversation with both counties to determine what their rationale was to allow certain businesses to operate.
Santa Barbara County CEO Mona Miyasato also stated that reopening the economy will be based on what’s allowed due to the Governor’s order. She cautioned comparing Santa Barbara county to other counties as some issued stay at home orders before the Governor while Santa Barbara issued the order following the Governor’s announcement. She also said some counties had more restrictive orders than what the Governor issued and they are beginning to relax those, where Santa Barbara did not impose stricter guidelines outside of the Governor’s order.
Sadly the demographics do not surprise me. Just today, a bunch of our Hispanic neighbors were hanging out – two guys in a car parked for a long time and a woman and another male talking to them on and off. No masks. No distancing. the guys in the car eventually drove off. I’ve seen groups of Hispanic neighbors in the complex on our block congregating outside, chatting, with no distance and no masks. The rest of us are hiding in side our houses. I don’t get it, did the word not get out to them ? I don’t see how that is even possible as this is worldwide distancing for the most part and lockdowns.
A lot of brown people (and working-class people of all ethnic backgrounds) are living in group homes, where it is impossible to physically distance, washing clothes in crowded laundromats, cleaning homes, working in essential services. I think it’s pretty shameful of you, actually racist, to suggest that they’re stupid. You’re right: YOU DON’T GET IT.
What a plan Santa Barbara, lets just mimic Newsome who also doesn’t have a realistic plan.
Can we get a breakdown of cases by zip code? Why? More precise info allows people to be more precise in their action to avoid CV. Dr Do appears to be in way over her head. How do people get elevated to these positions without some level of acumen to get stuff done. We have a City Manager making almost $300K per year – what is he doing during this crisis to manage our city? I would think that with a salary this size we could attract better talent vs. just another sloth living off of tax payers. Can our Mayor and City Administrator provide some game plan – some communication that lets us know what they are doing to get the city open again. I do not want to see a video of our Mayor or Dr Ho visiting the beach to see people practicing social distancing. Given he short fall in revenue the city is expecting it is time to level set what we pay the nimrods in city management. Blah Blah Blah
have you even…. looked at the zipcodes? https://www.zip-codes.com/county/ca-santa-barbara.asp — on average, each major code contains many thousands of people…. sure, real precise 😉
By zip code? By county isn’t close enough? It’s already minuscule for SB county. If you want to know if your neighbors are well, ask them..
Our Hispanic population has more people living per household than the white population. This city is half Hispanic! I grew up here and in school as a white girl I was usually a minority. These numbers are just representing our actual population.
Go back to your government desk and push some pencils while you wait for another government hand out.
By zip code? Clearly some 93108 so for sure avoid Montecito! 93105 runs from hope ranch up to mission canyon AND up san marcos pass. I would say it’s a safe bet that 93105 has cases, and 93101 and 93103 just based upon the odds. Oh and for sure 93117 because we have at least 1 positive in IV. Is that enough info? Seriously, make sure that you wear a mask when you go out and wash your hands a lot. Common sense should dictate, NOT zip code.
Exactly!!
Exactly!!
The zip code idea is a good one . We could take a look at Isla Vista ( former Isla Vistan here ) where most people are under 25 yrs. of age but packed into apartments with sometimes 3 and 4 in a single room and compare that to older folks who live in senior housing, trailor parks or old folks homes as an example and compare the difference then go to, Montecito where many people are of different ages but are seperated by fences, hedges and where there is considerable distance from neighbor to neighbor . Anyways, great idea, i don’t want to keep rambling on but you get my point . Thumbs up, SB local .
it really depends who you ask 😉 https://finance.yahoo.com/video/defeating-coronavirus-reopening-economy-equally-005005690.html
Watching a SB board of supervisors meeting is like watching a bad HOA do business.
STD at 8:55. You don’t seem to understand that if you ease social distancing, the curve goes back up. It doesn’t stay bent unless our behavior stays sane.
The headline for this article makes no sense. Nowhere in this article did anyone offer any plan to reopen the economy. There is no plan to reopen the economy, which will be our collective demise. Hope everyone is happy in a few months when you pick through the ashes of a bankrupt and ruined city.
what a common sense thing to do – if we know cases are localized to a certain area, then send alerts to that geo location – by not alerting people who are located in an area with higher risk you can make the argument that the gov’t officials are being negligent
This plan is super vague. Here is a summary of what’s written above: 1) Organize a project team, 2) Engage a planning group, 3) Form a team, 4) Draft a document, 5) Finalize a Road Map, 6) Present to the Board of Supervisors. The currently non-working taxpayers of Santa Barbara County are underwriting paid county staff to do this. Just hire a summer intern, have her put together a dozen PowerPoint slides, then show them to the supervisors next week for feedback.
the hypocrisy of the…… right?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otOKTAoIW4E
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say what??
Economy reopens, people go back to work, nobody has any spare money left to patronize reopened businesses…
Went to Trader Joe’s yesterday. Most were wearing a mask but a minority was not. Why they don’t make this mandatory for everyone who goes to the store makes no sense.
$40 million in the hole and counting, yet they now want to assemble a panel to discuss things for 6 weeks. Seems every time a decision needs to made, these overpaid reps run to group sessions and paid for consultants. Further, they are suggesting that Covid has disproportionately and inequitably targeted the Latino population. They are implying Covid has acted racially suggesting Latinos are inequitably represented in society. What? They ignore knowingly that they are referencing an inefficient sample size, and that there is ABSOLUTELY no way the disease distribution should be correlated to race. But here we are! Worst of all, out of 417 people who have presented with Covid, this administrative group has Lost Track of nearly 100 patients! What? How in the world can you not find them? Where did they go? Who were they? So now there’s no way to follow up on their health or gather additional data from them for the benefit of public health? If you take the prison inmates out of the total (who obviously can be located), this means the county has thus (in less then one month) lost track of nearly 30% of all of the patients who presented. This is inexcusable.
It should be manditory for entry into any store. At the very least it shows solidarity in the wish to protect others. I picked up meds at Rite Aide and everyone was wearing one except a Latino group, & what appeared to be an extended southeast Asian family and a heavy-set white woman picking up diabetic supplies. These are the groups that are being hit the hardest. The various distributions don’t lie. Putting politically-correctness in place harms these populations and makes them more vulnerable since it hides their vulnerability.
The Gov’s name is Newsom.
Has anyone noticed that the count goes up on week-end on the graph? Seems to me that is suggestive of gathering, many in extended family groups, a week-end before.
We are screwed!!!
It’s called “grandstanding!”
Yes- the percentages lend themselves to a majority of hispanics in this town- OPEN UP THE COUNTY!!!
400 cases in the county of Santa Barbara. Lol. What a joke. Most are in prison too. Over reaction, one big joke. I wonder how many county drug overdoses there was since January. Almost like getting hit by lightning is more probable than getting covid 19. Jokes on us
Four to six weeks to finalize the presentation to be presented to the Board of Supervisors. And that’s just the beginning. The title of the article is very misleading.
We agreed to stay at home to bend the curve. Now that the curve has been bent if they don’t lift the stay at home (while keeping social distancing) we must resist! If you don’t feel safe, that is okay, stay home! Most of us feel very safe here and want to get back to work.
Sure a joke until you are a loved one gets the virus and becomes violently ill or dies because we let down our guard. Some folks just need to learn the hard way.
UN reports more people will die from starvation and the economic downturn than the virus. 1 billion ppl will starve. This doesn’t account for mental illness. If your afraid stay home, I’m sure you guys afraid still have your job or get benefits from the government. The people wanting to go back to work are business owners and others that are not getting money from the gov, and owe money during this time for our businesses. Self employed individuals will get $167 starting beg of May. This is a joke. If u want ppl to not go to work, we need more than $167 a week. I went from making over $7000 a month to $0 then to $167 a week, plus I owe my rent for my business and business expenses, mortgage, 4 mouths to feed. I’d rather stay home If that’s safer, but I need to provide for my family and I’m willing to risk my life so we don’t lose everything.
Peter Adam is hell-bent to open up everything a la Trump, so I sure hope he’s setting a fine example for all the protestors and NOT wearing a mask to show all how this pandemic is a hoax like The Don spews.
More people die in car crashes on San Marcos pass in six months than have died from CV-19 in SB County. Every life is precious, but come on. Put this in perspective.
@frederick, do tell us. what exactly do those people need to “learn the hard way”? that if someone you know gets sick, you should blame society? shut down everything?
if the ‘lockdown til we have a vaccine’ crew gets their way….we’ll all be “learning the hard way” about the mortality rates of poverty (which is far more transmissible and devastating than COVID 😉 there’s many studies about the widespread effects of poverty, it’s actually what we’ve specifically spent the last several decades trying to eradicate)
I sympathize. But imagine if we didn’t have to risk our lives in order to avoid total devastation… that’s what UBI is about. I’m not saying I’m for or against. But maybe it’s something we should think about and discuss more even though Andrew Yang is long gone from the presidential race. Anything is possible. I can already see the downvotes I’m going to get for this post. Sigh.
@9:09 am. I with you all the way on that. Although I am still working I feel for you as I have several friends and family members that have gone from making a decent living to making zero. The stay at home order needs to end now or we need to start making more noise as Sam the dog says.
The good news is that the red states will serve as the guinea pigs and go back to “normal” before we have to. Let’s watch closely and see what happens. Sweden is a terrible comp for the US, as are Asian countries like South Korea for so many reasons. Let’s compare to other US states and see what happens, then decide how we move forward.
are you kidding?
every “essential worker” is a guinea pig.
and has SB had a huge loss of essential workers? even with so much non-compliance with masks in the public?
Asking bureaucrats how or when to re-open our economy is like asking the gas station attendant how to fill up your Tesla. What these people know about business can be summed up in a single word. Nada.
That’s sad on so many levels…
So you didnt save enough for the rainy days? My thoughts and prayers to you and your family during such hard times. Jesus will save you, wont he? Or maybe you should have saved more of your money – like a good ‘conservative’. You do realise that asking for and relying on government handouts makes you a weak, socialist, liberal…
Do you feel good about that comment SB Observer? Like you’re adding to a constructive dialogue?
Ironic that Adam is urging local government to break state mandates and see if the state does anything. Wasn’t his farm responsible for the big ecoli outbreak a while back? Maybe he was breaking state health laws to see if the state would do anything about it then. Got some pretty big fines as I recall. If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones.
9:09, assuming you could convince the governor to open back up, do you think your business will give you the same amount right from the beginning or will it take a while to build back to that level? If you were making $7K a mo then I guess you are not an uber driver.
According to most polls right now the majority of Americans still support stay at home orders and think it would very unwise to re-open too soon. You have a vocal minority that cares less about protecting the health of the nation and more about the economic and political fall out.
I feel great Sam, thanks for your concern. What I also find great is how during these trying times, the hypocrisy, greed and myopia of the “Right” and especially “Trumpsters” comes crashing down. ————————————————————————————————– How long are you going to hold onto your “ideals”, when you need to eat and pay your bills? How long are you going to hold onto your political positions when your Mother needs a ventilator in order to live? ————————————————————————————————— We are watching a great awaking occur. For when its suddenly your problem, not theirs, that you become “woke” to the truth. Welcome to enlightenment Sam!
You’re assuming human beings aren’t aware of their surroundings. This assumption leads to suggesting there’s some level of ignorance that exists. None of which is predicated on the ability to speak and/or read a native or secondary language. If I were living in China (not being able to speak or read mandarin) I would be fully aware of what is happening around me. What is more probable is there are pockets of infection that are localized in homes or places of work. This has been demonstrated historically. However, our public health officials have Purposefully chosen NOT to share this pertinent information which could be truly valuable to extinguishing hotspots. Instead these administrators choose to keep all exposure points secretive so that everyone just assumes that the disease is everywhere and you should stay vigilant. They also do it because of politicized arguments that suggest racial and socioeconomic undertones. Not Science.
Coolio, you’re really suggesting that we use a poll to dictate public policy related to a pandemic? Dude, put down the bong.
What a joke! There is hyper criticism in markets if one goes the “wrong way” down the bread aisle – yet the labor pick up wall (off garden) has at least 60 men playing cards, hanging out, trying to get day work while getting lunch from a food truck – during the entire lockdown! Geee is it possible the “the disproportionately higher numbers in the latino population” may have something to do with this? This town is run by incompetent PC fools! Everybody needs to get back to work we have done enough. Get over it.