Edhat Staff
(left to right) Dr. Henning Ansorg, Supervisor Gregg Hart, and Dr. Van De-Reynoso
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara County health officials provided an update on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic stating social distancing is our only hope to slow the spread of the virus.
The Friday afternoon press conference discussed the shelter in place order issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday evening.
The shelter in place order means all residents should stay in their homes unless accessing essential services such as food, banks, and doctor’s visits. Residents are allowed to leave their home but they must practice social distancing and stay at least 6 feet away from other people. (More information on the order can be found here).
County health officials are working with the homeless task force to ensure those in the shelter system are assessed and, if symptomatic, taken care of.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gregg Hart emphasized the health and resiliency of our community depends on every resident taking COVID-19 and social distancing seriously.
There are 9 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County, none of which required hospitalization and are expected to fully recover. There are approximately 200 pending test results, as of Friday afternoon, but that number may be higher due to providers using outside laboratories, said Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg.
However, a new laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona has recently started processing COVID-19 tests and local officials hope to have test results much sooner.
“The recent increase in cases has shown we now have widespread community transmission. This means we can no longer hope that the Santa Barbara area will be spared by this virus,” said Dr. Ansorg. “Social distancing is the only option we have to slow down the progression of this contagion. This virus is very contagious and nobody has immunity to it because it is a new virus to the human genome.”
With recent reports of, mostly younger, people partying on beaches and hosting “covid parties,” Dr. Ansorg urged people to take this threat seriously. “It’s capable of making younger and healthy people quite ill. The odds are in their favor, however, it’s not unreasonable to believe a younger person can get seriously ill,” he said.
Dr. Ansorg continued by stating if we let COVID-19 run its course we could end up worse than Italy with nearly 85% of the population getting sick within two months and at least 5% requiring hospitalization.
“Our healthcare system would collapse. In order to prevent this from happening, we have to take social distancing really seriously. It will give us the chance that not many people get sick at the same time,” said Dr. Ansorg.
People with mild symptoms who have not been tested are urged to self-isolate and consider themselves infected with COVID-19. They are advised to stay home for at least 7 days until respiratory symptoms have resolved or the fever has dissipated after 72 hours without the help of medication.
For non-essential businesses who are not complying with the order to temporarily close, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department Director Van Do-Reynoso stated it’s really unfortunate this is happening and she hopes everyone can abide by Governor Newsom’s Executive Order. Additionally, the Environmental Health Services team will be reaching out to all food places to remove dine-in options and transition to dine out options.
Officials also urged people who are panicking and overbuying supplies to be prepared and methodical about their approach while avoiding public situations but not to panic as everyone will still have access to food and medical attention.
To help those who are unable to work during this time, Supervisor Hart stated the county is working with all levels of government to provide assistance packages.
For additional information on COVID-19 visit https://publichealthsbc.org/ or call (833) 688-5551 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The full video of the announcement is available below:
“Dr. Ansorg continued by stating if we let COVID-19 run its course we could end up worse than Italy with nearly 85% of the population getting sick within two months…” Currently Italy has around 50,000 cases and a population of over 60,000,000. This means that fewer than 0.1% of Italians have Covid-19, after nearly two months of reporting. Dr Ansorg’s estimate is off by three orders of magnitude. What is his basis for these alarming projections?
Statistics and math. Projections are bound to have a large spread because no one really knows how many people have coronavirus due to lack of testing. We can guesstimate judging by the death toll, but until widespread testing is available, it’s anyone’s guess.
This, like every other virus in the history of living beings, will inevitably infect EVERYONE. If you think otherwise, you’re fooling yourself. My question: is “social distancing”, etc really helping, considering…? Is it better to draw this sh$&show out, or get it over with as quickly as possible? Please, spare your snark for someone who gives a crap.
Italy has only 50,000 cases but 4,000 deaths, an 8% death rate. If we extrapolate actual vs tested cases to a 1% death rate then they have over 200,000 cases. They currently don’t have enough ICU beds for those patients who require them (and their health care system is relatively good), and things are getting rapidly worse.
Check New York’s numbers in 4 days.
Italy has more than the official number of cases because they are so overwhelmed in the worst hit region (Lombardy) that they cannot test all those that used to be tested. They just cannot keep up. The number of deaths is also likely somewhat underreported because people are now starting to die at home (not in the hospitals) and it is not clear that those are being reported. Bottom line: numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but it is very bad. Source: I have been reading the Italian news sites.
Social distancing is not the only thing we need to do. Cottage hospital does not have enough ICU beds, ventilators, safety equipment, or backup doctors and nurses. If as doctor Ansorg suggests that in the worst case at least 5% of people in Santa Barbara require hospitalization over a two month period, and assuming each person is hospitalized for a week, this amounts to close to 600 hospital beds at Cottage that will be devoted to Covid-19 patients alone. Cottage currently has 500 beds in total. In doctor Ansorg’s opinion how many Covid-19 cases should Cottage be realistically planning for, even if we practice perfect social distancing? In his opinion, how many beds and ventilators do we need to handle the anticipated Covid-19 load?
This is a good question. There is little information specific to Cottage Hospital regarding planning for additional hospital beds, ventilators and critical care staff. Testing is severely limited here in the County with results slow to come back. Is there enough protective gear for the hospital staff? Are there enough available medical staff to replace those who become sick and potentially expose their colleagues who will then have to quarantine themselves? The lack of this information is concerning.
The reasons why these comparisons to the flu are misconceived and irrelevant have been explained over and over and over and over again. Please stop with the deflection.
I have four females in the house who are very nervous about our TP supply. I was unable to find paper products yesterday. For social distancing reasons I was also uncomfortable with mingling with a lot of people in stores. I ended up at Home Depot for my back up plan: a bag of cotton painter’s rags. They can serve as both paper towels and TP and washed for reuse. It’s better than having nothing on hand.
Cottage Authorities have regularly and dutifully communicated to SB City Council. May I respectfully suggest viewing these informative sessions to access information?
Can anyone tell me how the homeless are doing, the ones that don’t want to go to the religiously-based (and probably overwhelmed) Mission, etc.? They get their money and sustenance on State Street and it is closed. Rain coming. Illness comes on when your system is low on food and warmth for sleep. You need a bed when you’re sick. And so on.
Finally, the voice of reason!