Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
The Public Health Department (PHD) reports the Santa Barbara County intensive care unit (ICU) availability has now fallen to 0% as the county reported its highest COVID-19 in a single day.
Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg said the situation in Santa Barbara County is now “dire.”
“In light of our current situation, I am at a loss. I honestly don’t know what to say anymore. Many people are blatantly disregarding all warnings,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.
On Monday alone there were 456 new COVID-19 cases, six deaths, and 1,949 active cases. All of these metrics were at the highest level the county has ever seen been since the beginning of the pandemic, said PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso.
Graph of daily COVID-19 cases from March to present-day (Source: SBC Public Health)
On Tuesday, an additional 341 new cases and seven deaths were reported. All individuals were over 70 years of age, five had underlying health conditions, and four were associated with an outbreak at a congregate living facility. Two individuals resided in the City of Santa Barbara, two were from the City of Santa Maria, one resided in the City of Goleta, one resided in the unincorporated area of Goleta, and one in the Santa Ynez Valley.
This brings total deaths to 173. The active case count is now 2,105 with 172 hospitalizations including 55 in the ICU.
Dr. Do-Reynoso stated hospitals are running out of staffed ICU beds and started using surge beds a few days ago as the county’s capacity is now below 1%. Hospitals are now preparing for crisis care, meaning, a person with health needs other than COVID-19 may not receive the health care they’d normally expect.
Hospitals surge protocol works to repurpose staff and rooms to accommodate infectious patients while and discharging patients in a timely fashion while also working with ambulances to determine who really needs emergency care and who can be redirected, said Dr. Ansorg.
Additionally, the testing positivity and case rates are at record highs, nearly seven-times the threshold for the widespread transmission threshold to reopen businesses. In December alone there have been 28 outbreaks in businesses in nearly every sector and 48 outbreaks at congregate care settings.
“What used to be less risky is now risky given the widespread infection in our county,” said Dr. Do-Reynoso.
Officials reaffirmed, yet again, that the increase in cases and deaths is directly related to travel and gathering during the holidays. The current spike is directly attributed to Thanksgiving while we have yet to see the spike from the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
“I understand that people are tired of the pandemic, however, denial of the facts only makes things worse. There are behaviors that are most risky for instance traveling and gathering especially when not wearing masks,” said Dr. Ansorg.
Graph of staffed adult ICU bed availability from August 2020 to December 2020 (Source: SBC Public Health)
Vaccination Update
Santa Barbara County has administered 54% of its vaccine allotment so far, said Dr. Do-Reynoso. PHD is currently focusing on Phase 1a that vaccinates acute care healthcare workers, staff and residents in long term care setting serving older and high risk, EMS personnel, and dialysis center staff.
PHD has 42 approved vaccination sites as providers are ramping up their logistics preparing for distribution. By next week PHD is planning to offer 350-500 vaccines per day culminating in 1,000 doses per day by early February.
The community at large is expected to be able to receive the vaccine by March or April.
More information about vaccine distribution can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
Maybe if they had actually enforced the orders we wouldn’t be here today. It’s not just the cops, public health told the cops they prefer education and outreach versus fines, etc. [or so I was told]. I saw gyms open, not even hiding it. People gathering and nothing done about it. Education and outreach what a joke, now we will learn the hard way. People who could otherwise have lived will die if they cannot get treatment for things like heart attacks, strokes, etc. Very bad times ahead. Sad.
Yes, it must be the nurses fault. They aren’t working enough- 6 days a week, 12 hr shifts isn’t enough. If I was them I would just work my regular schedule and let the unmasked people figure out how to provide enough care for themselves. Why kill yourself to save uninformed people?
I am PRO labor union but,am anti union for teachers,cops prisons, really any Government employees of any kind because it breeds mediocrity witch results in a waste of the peoples taxes.
Sorry that there is no representation for RN’s here.
My sister in law just retired from the union that is affiliated with nursing after 35 years in Visalia.
Nurse staffing per patient is the same union or not, it controls things like nurses per patient in ICU.CCU,etc union or not.
Sorry Pit-It is NOT the nurses themselves at fault but, go ahead and jump to conclusions.
“Can someone please translate this comment into understandable?”
lol
I’ll spell it out for you.
When there are people that interact with hundreds of people everyday and haven’t worn masks for this entire pandemic, it doesn’t make sense to increase restrictions on people that have very little interaction with others.
If anyone has an actual rebuttal, feel free to post it. Downvoting without responding is essentially admitting you have no argument.
Jones, if two people want to get together that is them to decide if they want to wear masks or not. We need to provide people with current, accurate information and empower them to make good decisions on their own. Will everyone make good decisions? No, of course not. But we’ll gain (or would have gained) greater compliance if we provide accurate information, guidance and support rather than scare tactics, threats, and mandates.
Finally I’m with you!!! We can also quit rescuing people in the hill’s that get lost or hurt!! No more sea rescues if the boats not seaworthy !! No more police or fire department response if your not current on property taxes. Why respond to a traffic accident if there’s no insurance, unlicensed driver or the vehicles not currently registered? Will you please volunteer to be the one who decides who’s stupid and doesn’t deserve help?
100% Chico. It isn’t so much they shouldn’t be allowed to unionize, it’s just the union shouldn’t be allowed to get into politics, lobby, or donate to campaigns. As we’ve seen this year in CA, when government employee unions become so powerful they can control who gets elected, and the people who get elected determine how the money flows back to the various governmental agencies, problems arise (i.e. kids not being in school, SB city employees getting a raise mid-pandemic, continuation of unsustainable pension plans, and the every growing employee count regardless of services provided).
Are SB hospitals taking in patients from LA? I ask because our local numbers don’t add up. We have far more ICU beds than the total number of SB patients in ICU, yet we are told that all beds are filled and we are at zero capacity. What’s going on?
Thank you Voice of Reason. Good points. So, it’s okay not to wear a mask?
Jones, it’s ok if you’re cool with potentially killing someone. If you’re young, it’s unlikely it will be you. But the grandma you pass it via her daughter and sole carer who is shopping at the same store as you and inadvertently gets infected because you’ve given them the new and highly transmissable new strain could die. If you’re okay with that, I suggest doing some soul searching.
In your own home it’s your call.
VOR – That’s the first upvote I’ve given you in a while haha! Yeah, keep unions out of politics!
Its as simple as this! People are DUMB.
Landshark, there are 84 ICU beds and 75 total ICU patients, 55 of which have CV. There are 10 ICU Surge Beds in use, but they are either part of the 55 in use or being counted outside the system (Sears location perhaps). Either way, we have 9 ICU beds left in SB County…for now. This is the “actual” availability, which is 10.7%. The “adjusted” ICU availability, which is calculated using a CPDH formula, is the number that is at 0% right now.
Lockdowns do actually work. Lockdowns without compliance and without enforcement, don’t work. It’s really that simple.
We are seeing the sad (and avoidable) results of that now.
Lockdowns don’t work for extended periods of time exactly because people won’t comply long-term. It is not a feasible long term strategy. CDC, WHO and other explicitly said so yet here we are in month 10 still trying to use it a means to control covid. Over the past year, had the state taken a consistent approach, based on science and data, that was also followed by those the very people dictating the response, then many more people would have heeded the new stay at home order in December.
100%!
That really concerns me Chem and I want answers from Cottage and SB Public Health. How the heck do we drop from 150 in August to 84 ICU beds in the middle of a pandemic knowing there would be a large spike this winter? This is a failure in leadership.
Yes people are dumb. We need to enforce lockdowns and require masks at all times even while surfing. I can’t believe all these people massless surfing
It is pretty clear that a lot of the lack of social distancing we see later stems from people being burned out by running in nonstop panic mode for the past 8-10 months. In the early days of the pandemic in the USA, we knew relatively little about it and it was proper (or at least reasonable) to act decisively. By early Summer enough was known to allow isolation and distancing protocols to be a lot more focused and tailored. Medics resources could have been dialed in a lot better than they are at the moment too. Leadership around the world missed these opportunities and now people are taking their lives back into their own hands. No surprise. Do note that in some parts of the world and even in places in the USA more people have been harmed by bungled responses to the pandemic than by the pandemic itself.
Check out Roemer’s law “Roemer’s Law famously and simply states, hospital beds that are built tend to be used “. The numbers of beds per capita is actually regulated in the US. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3572098/
in 1975 there were 1.5 Million hospital beds available in the United States. Now, there are only 925,000 in a country with over 325 Million people.. Do the math, this is no surprise. Meanwhile, the Governor is going to spend BILLIONS on electric car charging stations and Billions are spent on Football stadiums…
Everyone knew better than the truth, reality and science, insisting on their continued poor risk assessment…
This has been very instructive…time to treat these deniers like the dangerous lunatics they are
A lot more procedures are done on an out-patient basis, so some of the bed reduction is justified. In 1975 there were few out-patient surgical centers, so everyone went to the hospital and stayed at least one night for things that now don’t require a hospital at all.
Here here Andrea, I agree completely! All one needed to do was to go out and drive to see lack of total compliance in this community.
One Sunday I was going to pick up medication amd food provisions to have for an upcoming surgery at cottage on dec 28. There was a line 20-25 deep waiting to get into Michael’s! Really? Michael’s constitutes necessary reasons to be open? Enforce and execute. If peoples of some other countries didn’t follow mandates, they would be jailed——-or worse, that’s what this dang country needs. Not some entitled who continue to go about their business!
Thank God I was able to have my surgery and continue to rehab. Honestly, I think before anyone shows up at Cottage, one of the questions should be “did you travel this holiday”? If the answer is yes, SEND THEM HOME! I don’t want them getting a bed because they were stupid and didn’t stay in place. I want that damn hospital bed for folks who followed the rules. They flew, partied, shopped, while people like me stayed home trying to protect myself and others. How DARE they. This is criminal. The city, county, state…….it’s time to get tough. Arrest people, lock them up, impose the fines, monitor…..yeah this is America, but you’d never know it, give up your gready selfish freedoms for a couple of months, let’s get vaccinated so we can move on!!! I hope those people in line at Michael’s made their christmas doodads snd aren’t dead because they needed yarn to knit their Christmas gifts! Idiots.
I know when I slip out today to get some much-needed groceries, 1/3 of the people I see won’t be wearing masks or social distancing.
AGAIN: if you are a non-masker who believes their freedom is being challenged, be sure to tell the ER personnel of your convictions as you wait (in line) to be admitted.
It’ll be like everything else, the rollout is full of bumps and obstacles but they will find someone who will fix the problems and then the vaccine will finally end up in the arms of the 70% that want it. Never fear, Biden is coming!
If the government would pay everyone to stay home and they forgave all taxes, mortgage & rent for everyone it would be easier to lock down.
But the govt wants their taxes even if you don’t go to work. The bank wants their mortgage pmt & the Land Lord needs to pay the mortgage and taxes even if renters don’t pay.
Messed up, idiotic. Stay home and go into chapter 11? Or have a bank foreclose on your hone or property?
Then you ad in the emotional toll this has taken on people, especially the under 25 yr olds. Much higher suicide rates, crime, domestic violence, etc….
Poor leadership, poor science, poor planning.
Viruses have been studied fir over a hundred years. Science & Medicine should know by now how to limit the spread and govt should have put procedures in place decades ago.
Leaders & medical experts are reacting, not being proactive.
Perhaps the WHO, CDC & medical/govt experts will finally devise a actionable plan for the next pandemic. But this one is a crap shoot
Take care of yourselves and stay home order delivery in.
Cancel your housekeepers, yard maintenance, Don’t participate in unessential businesses like liquor stores or clothes shopping etc…
What grocery store do you go to where 1/3 of people are not wearing masks? I see 100% compliance with mask wearing inside stores here. The spread is mostly due to indoor gatherings and family functions with probably some workplaces as well.
If masks are the solution, why lockdowns? If lockdowns are the solution, why is anything open?
Same here Jence. And now I’m not only scared about me or my parents or grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc getting the virus, but also doubly worried about getting some other kind of serious illness or injury. If there aren’t any ICU beds left what will happen then? I wish the governor would spend more money on health and education instead of wasting billions on that dumb la to sf electric train thingy.
CW–are you advocating for government construction and operation of hospitals? If so, we are in agreement. This sort of socialism is what has been missing in this country for the past couple of decades. By and large the model is to let the rich people profit over such community needs and decided on a “free market” basis whether to provide the resource at all.
People can’t wear masks at restaurants, bars, wineries, etc. all of which were open even after other businesses (like salons, where masks can be worn the entire time were shut). These are well known sources of transmission. In places where they actually track what is going on (Asian countries), they go as far as producing seating maps from inside of restaurants showing how infection spread across large indoor locations. As for outdoor dining, I’m living proof you can get sick from meeting a friend for lunch outdoors. I got sick after a friend showed up ill for outdoor drinks at a local hotel where we sat literally about 6 feet apart (because we were on outdoor sofas with a low table in between us, not even a closer smaller-sized typical dining table for 2). Not with COVID. This was a few years back and it was a bad cold. Same principle applies. So meeting up with people for outdoor dining or gallavanting around the rose garden or other parks is also not safe.
What is causing fear and anxiety is lack of transparency on specifics related to who is getting CV and how they are getting it. Why? Political correctness and the government wanting people to feel oppressed. I can only speak for SB County – when I go out there is 99% mask wearing – even people driving solo in cars or jogging/biking with no one near them. It boggles my mind how people are still getting it. There is no way to come into contact with a stranger – if you tried you would be shooed away. For people working outside like gardeners, construction workers, garbage collectors, etc… they are doing things that would suggest risk of getting it.
So people are getting it at home – then where did they bring it in from. Are younger people going to LA to gatherings and then bringing it into their homes? Does the at risk person at home care who is coming in and out of their home.
My take is that CV is being propagated by a small subset of our population whose culture/social morays are more important than public health. As a society we can not call any specific group out unlike other countries where you are expected to follow rules.
With all due respect, what exactly is Biden going to do about this? His plan is 100 million vaccinated in the first 100 days. Ok, that leaves 220 million that still need it and we’ll be in May. Literally what is his plan to get this done? What concrete things can he do to make this happen? I think Trump is toxic, but how is he hindering the process currently? Looks like major failure of local organizations. The vaccine shortage is one thing and the federal government should have done more to source raw materials to preempt this, but the blame for the slow distribution falls squarely on the shoulder of state and local governments. If they felt that Trump was not doing enough to support them or plan for this, they have had months and months to plan ahead and deal with it on their own. As if we don’t pay enough taxes here in CA? What are they doing with our money?
Have you read any of the latests articles or watched any press conferences or looked at any CDC or local public health data or watched any reliable news program? People are not following the guidance. They are traveling, visiting family, and gathering and not wearing their mask. I assume they went to families homes for holidays, hugged, kissed, ate, drank, coughed, etc. Then they’re going to their offices and workplaces and spreading it where outbreaks are occurring. The biggest one is our Sheriff’s Office. I heard two middle aged men at the grocery store talking about a large BBQ they’re throwing for a friends birthday.
Conversation with my Doc yesterday really brought to light that the bed problem is with how much staff is required per patient.
Always more beds than staff.
Seems the nurses union just like teachers union are more interested in themselves than solving this problem.
How you say?
As always the money controls everything that goes on in institutions like teachers,cops healthcare etc.
Step up with more money for those jobs and you will solve SOME of the problems. Maybe all the over educated at UCSB could step up since their opinion and science is paramount here.
I’m sorry Townie, but stats out of New York show restaurants and bars, with indoor operations, were only responsible for 1.4% of the spread. Your comment they are well known sources of spread are contradictory to the facts. Your anecdotal experience from a cold several years ago is just that, anecdotal.
I’m sorry Townie, but stats out of New York show restaurants and bars, with indoor operations, were only responsible for 1.4% of the spread. Your comment they are well known sources of spread are contradictory to the facts. Your anecdotal experience from a cold several years ago is just that, anecdotal.
I would agree with you RHS if our government had a better track record of implementing and managing the process.
Thanks for the clarification. Now, I don’t want to start another mask debate, but if they’re outside it’s not a big deal. There is enough data out there that there is no transmission risk passing by someone outside (ask healthcare professionals if you don’t believe me). Don’t let that fear guide you. The situation we are in has everything to do with indoor gatherings (mostly family). I’m over people giving me judgmental looks when I’m out for a run or on a hike. Sorry people not going to wear a mask if I’m outside and not in a crowd.
Sorry to disappoint you, VOR, but you’re wrong. A meta-analysis of 98 million people in the USA (via cell phone tracking data) carried out by Stanford University researches, PROVES that restaurants are big locations for transmission. “Stanford computer scientist Jure Leskovec, the senior author of the report, tells the Times that ‘restaurants were by far the riskiest places’ for new infections, ‘about four times riskier than gyms and coffee shops, followed by hotels,’ he says.” Google it if you don’t believe me. I’ll believe the data of 98 million and Stanford researchers over the NYC department of health’s shoddy and incomplete data.
The 0% is the “adjusted” ICU availability; it’s important to point that out. The “actual” availability is currently 8.4%, with 83 total beds. Still, even the “actual” ICU bed availability will be gone soon as well unless they find a way to open up more ICU beds. Their maximum bed availability at one point in August was 150 ICU beds, so hopefully they can find a way to open up close to that capacity soon.
Had we a nurses union this sort of stuff could have been ameliorated. Employee unions know when the bosses are over demanding and cutting corners and an effective voice on their behalf might have resulted in more of a cushion when demand hits this hard. I do not understand, btw, why this anger against working people? Anger about exploitation and greed should be directed at the fund managers who now push the profit angle at institutions that should be there for the public good, not private wealth.
So you think masks work? If that is the case and you are wearing one, you are protected. Don’t worry about what others are doing. If you think 6′ distancing works, keep your distance – you are protected – don’t worry about what others are doing. If you are under the impression that both 6′ and masks work, why worry about a lockdown, you are protected.
They called the generation that fought together in WWII the Greatest Generation. I wonder what they will call us? Entitled? Querulous? Quitters?