Edhat Staff
Dr. Van Do-Reynoso presenting during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting
By edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors agreed to move forward with submitting an attestation plan to the Governor to reopen more local businesses.
In a presentation to the board on Tuesday, county officials and the Public Health Department (PHD) presented current reports stating the county is meeting the Governor’s benchmarks to move forward to Phase 2b.
This phase would allow for shopping malls, in-person retail, and dine-in restaurants. Other services such as bars, barbers, gyms, hotels, and faith services would still be closed until the state moves to Phase 3.
PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso stated the county meets the amended criteria put forth by the Governor, especially since the COVID-19 outbreak at the Federal Prison in Lompoc will no longer affect the county’s overall data.
Some of the criteria that must be met to further reopen include a daily hospitalizations percent change of 5% or less within a one week period. In the past seven days, Santa Barbara County has seen an average of 2.2%
The state also requires less than 8% of positive tests within seven days, the county is reporting 3.5% within the last week. For testing our county would require 685 tests per day, we currently have the capacity for 690 tests per day. For contact tracing, our county would need 68 tracers, we currently have 82 fully trained with another 31 to be trained this week for a total of 113.
To protect the vulnerable populations, the county is currently sheltering 75 homeless individuals described as older adults with health conditions in the south county as well as 31 additional people in north county.
Other factors including the protection of essential workers, hospital capacity, containment capacity, and triggers for adjusting modifications have also been met.
While presenting data, Dr. Do-Reynoso stated the situation in the Santa Maria area is worrisome as the large majority of community COVID-19 cases are located there. PHD is now pivoting to work more closely with Santa Maria officials and residents to understand why there’s a high incidence of disease and to come up with creative solutions.
During Monday’s press conference, Dr. Henning Ansorg stated there is no clear data trend to suggest why the numbers are higher in Santa Maria. They’ve looked at all demographics including race, gender, ethnicity, neighborhood, language, income, and more and all cases are evenly spread.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to direct PHD to move forward with the attestation submission to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Once received, PHD and CDPH will communicate to finalize plans and make adjustments as necessary before the plan is posted to the state website, which could take between one and three days. After posting, PHD will issue an amended health order for the county declaring the formal changes and providing guidance.
Local businesses who qualify to reopen or reopen more fully will be asked to follow specific protocols in order to be eligible. PHD will post these guidelines on their website shortly.
Nooooooooooo !
Good job Santa Barbara, the message is clear that you want to open asap like most of do. We will be fine.
Can’t wait for everyone in my neighborhood to go back to work !
Just wanted to bump this post back up with all the BB gun chatter. Who gives out raises in the face of historic, never-before-seen revenue drops and budget deficits….. the City of Santa Barbara! My two prior thumbs down must be city employees because anyone with a hint of fiscal responsibility will this think is totally corrupt!
Yeah, then when your dumb ass gets me sick and I cant get my chemo I’ll be pissed.
Regarding the city employee raises, consider that the unionized employees have had to pick up a lot of slack after all the hourly employees were laid off. This means working odd shifts, extra shifts, and taking up extra tasks to maintain the public’s safety. Plus, I’ve heard they have been asked to not take days off if they’re healthy. Giving the unionized members a small raise is a kind sign of appreciation for them putting their own lives at risk in service to the public. They’re continuing a high level of service at the water treatment plant, in public spaces that have seen massive increases in use, and utilities maintenance. Not to mention police and fire. We should really be asking the highest paid in the city to take a notable cut. But, that’s an on-going debate.
My husband really needs a haircut
Meanwhile… with historic unprecedented unemployment, small businesses destroyed throughout the city/county, businesses that are struggling through have seen massive revenue declines and reductions in pay to employees, and the city/county anticipating a budget shortfall of tens of millions of dollars, the Santa Barbara City Council voted to approve a 2.5% raise to city union employees. How crazy is this? You have to throw fiscal responsibility right out the window to even being to justify this! They’re literally buying votes from the public service unions. Any pay cuts? NO! So next time the mayor or council member feeds you a line of “we’re in this together” BS know it’s just that, BS! They’re doling out raises while everyone else is taking a pay cut or losing their jobs/businesses all together!
Everything closed is getting old. I’ll take my chances getting COVID I’m not in a high risk group for death so not too worried.
“…the Santa Barbara City Council voted to approve a 2.5% raise to city union employees” This!!!! While you and your fellow, hard working, tax contributing citizens are suffering, these 2bit, over-paid and hyper-protected bureaucrats are working hard behind the scenes to steal more of your money. All without sacrificing a thing…