Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara County officials pleaded with the public to stop gathering and to wear a face-covering in order to reduce COVID-19 cases.
The county has been on the state’s monitoring list for 32 consecutive days due to a high number of hospitalizations and cases while failing to meet the thresholds.
Supervisor Gregg Hart stated every area of the county is experiencing an increase in cases and the biggest risks are workplaces and gatherings.
“We need to do more and quickly to stop the virus,” said Hart.
Cottage Health’s Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons stated COVID-19 is regaining momentum with record-high case counts, more hospital admittance, and deaths.
She stated that more is known about the virus since March when the outbreak began as physicians now understand how to diagnose and prevent the disease while using several treatment options. We also know how our immune systems responds to this virus and some people fail or lose neutralizing antibodies making herd immunity very difficult to achieve, she said.
Dr. Fitzgibbons urged the community to physically distance, consistently wear masks, and frequently wash hands. “If our whole community acts together, we can do this simply,” she said.
Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso agreed with the officials stating, “if you cannot maintain six feet of distance, you shouldn’t be there. Period.”
The Numbers
PHD is reporting 137 new cases bringing the county’s total to 4,759. Of those, 394 cases are active with 81 people hospitalized including 27 in the intensive care unit (icu).
The county’s case rate is ten times higher than the state’s acceptable threshold and the testing positivity is 1.6% over the allowed percentage.
Contact investigators determined 42% of positive cases were from community spread while 50% were due to person to person contact.
When asked why PHD data does not match the state’s Dr. Do-Reynoso confirmed the state has yet to share their coding and methodology so the numbers can be in sync. She said its mostly due to a lag time in reporting.
Business Complaints
PHD reported there have been 352 complaints from members of the public related to food facilities not following COVID-19 prevention protocol.
Dr. Do-Reynoso confirmed all of the businesses received a phone call and most received a site visit. From these there were four notices of violations, one permit notice, and one hearing. “All resulted well,” she said.
A state enforcement team linked to Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) licenses have also visited local businesses for employees not wearing masks or not wearing them properly, not enforcing physical distancing requirements, and for allowing indoor privileges while all operations must take place outdoor.
Dr. Do-Reynoso said she anticipates further modifications from the Governor in the future.
Schools Cannot Reopen
Earlier today, Governor Newsom announced Central Coast schools will not be allowed to reopen and must offer 100% virtual learning since the tri-counties are on the state monitoring list.
Assistant Superintendent of the Santa Barbara County Education Office Ellen Barger stated they are expecting more specific guidelines from the state on Monday but each district has been working on distance learning processes.
Barger confirmed that distance learning will look much different in the fall as districts were in “crisis mode” during the spring.
“We all need to come together and think about how we can support our children, teens, schools, and each other as we work hard to beat our numbers, to get our numbers back where they need to be so we can eventually open our schools,” said Barger.
More details on the current COVID-19 cases within Santa Barbara County can be found here.
Aww. Come on, Gregg. We know your history here. It seems like you are trying to pretend like you’re trying. And you may really be sincere this time but…..How did you get that job anyhow? Do you have specialized medical training we are not aware of? Have you seen what’s going on downtown and all over our county? Really? It’s not the fault of Santa Maria or farm workers. We’re all for redemption, so why don’t you simply order your fabulous law enforcement officers to acutally help out and do their job? All they have to do is tell people to wear a mask. Unfortunately, it will cut into their time harrassing homeless people, assaulting women and children, driving around, racially profiling and writing “reports” dicatated by Joyce Dudley et cetera, but it seems kind of important right now since you’re “pleading” with everyone and all. Come on. Seriously. Get it together. We’re sure you’re a good guy deep down.
A lot of evidence here for the postulate that asking for simple actions for the benefit of everyone, such as staying home when possible and wearing a mask when in public, leads to insanity in some people.
K, if you don’t want to wear a mask and don’t want ‘socialized medicine’ then don’t seek treatment when you get sick.
That will also reduce the cost of healthcare and PPE for the rest of us, and take the pressure off of staffing.
If your ‘belief system’ doesn’t include science then you don’t need modern medical treatment.
K thx Bai.
Do any of you actually think the uptick and rise in cases is happening because a person with no mask walk past you? Puppy, seriously? It’s not Santa Maria’s fault that they have the most cases. Um, okay. Who is it? Does someone drive there each day and infect them? And where are all these local police that apparently harass and assault homeless people and woman with children. Breathe bro.
You’ve warned, now ticket and publicize it. Behavior will change very quickly. It is human nature.
So, Loosecannon (great moniker) you think wearing masks is some negotiating point? What you say has nothing to do with public health; if you don’t do your part, everyone, of all age groups, suffers. Speaking for ‘Boomers,’ we and our cohorts have fully followed the protocols since March; no bars, restaurants, social gatherings, only trips to get food or medical needs, always wearing masks. Your economic grievances have zip to do with the pandemic; work the vote in November if you want to do something about it.
There are a lot of people breaking the rules out there. From all political sides. Old, Young, Men, Women. But the youngsters, by far, break the rules the majority of time. Parties everywhere. There are so many places I won’t go anymore because of the youngsters hanging on each other getting drunk and hootin’, hollerin’ and huggin’. Can’t really blame them for being young and wanting to have fun and break the rules. Lord knows I did when I was younger.
There is something odd with the data being reported by the County. The 137 number of new cases only appears in two columns, new cases by Geographic Area and Race/Ethnicity. If you look at the differences between reported totals of positives from today and yesterday (or total cases by Geographic Area from today and yesterday) you get 124. This has happened several times. Anyone have an idea if this a clerical error or am I missing something? Also, no actual reported hospitalizations or ICU today, so I guess we’re just going with yesterday’s? I like the “View Metrics” under “Stage 3” because it will show you the current occupancy of all hospital and ICU patients.
@9:01 I’m sorry about your family member but did you leave out the part where he was diagnosed with Covid or are you really trying to convince us to wear a mask so we don’t have a seizure while driving? You lost me. Others may be confused by your story as well.
Likely you never hugged anyone who you know had a good chance to have a communicable disease. Even young people have to respect the boundaries of civilized society. I was young once, too, but I cannot imagine that I would willingly do anything that I factually know could cause other people, including myself, to become ill or die. As Jesse Pinkman would say, “It’s science, b**ch!
This is very telling. In the before times, the CDC lumped pneumonia and other respiratory issues with the flu to inflate the numbers – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1309667/ along with their “Seven-step recipe for generating interest and demand for Flu (or any other) vaccination”. (this has been largely scrubbed from the internet.. ) Now they’re lumping those two together with Covid-19 for totals? Instead of a P&I index, we now have PIC.
Current SB population closer to 90,000. So we are now reacting with a 100% shutdown because of what has happened to 0.0004% of the city population. Okay. One could only hope San Marcos Pass will be shut down just as easily over its body count.
I’m glad you pointed this out, and that someone else is looking at the math. I went to the CDC website to check a reference from the thread to a decrease in death % in COVID-19 cases in the last week measured. When I got to the website the only two reports that were not available were the ones covering that data. When numbers disappear or don’t add up, there needs to be more scrutiny. I don’t mean to discredit all data, but to do some reasonableness testing. If the numbers don’t add up, just like when you were in school, you have to show your work.
I bet you don’t actually know a lot of “you older people”, or you might feel differently. It’s like the reverse of “what is wrong with kids today?”. Every generation has it, a feeling of superiority over the past one. My generation’s story is mostly written, and it is not ending on a good note, given the state of ….. everything. Your generation needs to step up to the plate now and take us to a better place. Good luck cleaning up the mess. FYI – Biden is a placeholder, a portal to the future. Trump is a portal to the past, a portal to Hell. You can start on Nov 3rd.
Why can’t we all just get along?
LOOSECANON speak for yourself. I am a GenX’er and I wear a mask. I have “boomer” friends who always wear their masks. All my GenX friends are responsible and are doing what they are asked. This isn’t about generations however, I will point out that a bunch of young folks in their late 20s or so had a party a few houses down. All while this is going on, people having to re-close their businesses, parents who work now have to figure out schooling. Talk about selfish and uncaring members of society. THis is why the younger generation can’t make it and guess what – you can thank your fellow GenX’ers who raised them this way.
Get a grip folks, the enemy here is the virus, not each other. Let’s treat each other as we’d like to be treated.
A family member was against all prevention methods and felt that he should be able to live as he wanted no mask or other rules applied . He then had an epileptic fit while driving, ran into a tree and was hospitalized for over a week. He has been diagnosed with a severe life threatening condition. Uninsured, he was grateful that others saved his life and now wears a mask We are all in this together.
How come “they” never tell us of the new cases or old cases if those people wore a mask or did not wear a mask? Maybe because the masks are not working because most of us don’t really know how to wear them and sanitize them ? Cloth masks or surgical masks are not really working we all know that….
Because CDC is relying on “death certificate data” which we now know is tainted, the numbers of confirmed deaths caused by covid, not merely with covid or presumed covid or covid like, remain totally unknowable. Yet the “numbers” are used to beat up the US response. However, since these now tainted numbers of “covid deaths” are part of the CDC operation we have failed; just not in the way some people intend. We failed because for reasons still to be discerned our public health care administration made a total hash up of this entire incidence.
44 alleged cases in Santa Barbara , population 75,000 get a grip & quit hiding under your bed.
Latest from CDC website: “Based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia, influenza or COVID-19 (PIC) decreased from 8.1% during week 27 to 6.4% during week 28, representing the twelfth week of a declining percentage of deaths due to PIC. ”
I have a friend whose son is in the military. He said his entire base was tested and everyone came up positive, although not one of them are exhibiting any symptoms…. food for thought. Didn’t ask what state he was in.
Check mate. Get the schools back open, wear a mask! If not because you believe in the protection because the economy, young people and families are being hurt by overreaching orders.
unless these numbers go down and we get off the “hit list’ we are stuck with virtual education.
Our kids are falling further behind in this political war of manipulation.
I’m so glad to see that others are finally getting that the numbers are bull$!t. The CDC lies and deletes stats that do not fit its narrative (I’ve got screenshots of that) and a few days ago eliminated the requirement for a positive virus test to list a death as from covid. We knew the numbers were lies and now there’s proof that it will be worse going forward.
Case numbers, always BS because the testing protocols are constantly changing here and everywhere. In our family, only one of three of us was “approved” to be tested. Does that make any sense?
What’s with car wash employees being essential workers but not teachers? Who’s the moron who determined that? How about the Sears Covid Surge Center? Remember Newsom demanded 55,000 more hospital beds and used 3,000? Our hospitals are advertising for elected surgeries while laying off staff.
And so people drive alone in the cars wearing masks and gloves. Does that make any sense at all? Sure, we have to take measures to protect our citizens. But that should be based on science and not CNN or Fox News where “if it bleeds, it leads.” Like on KEYT’s webpage. All is normal until you scroll down to COVID news which is placed on the brightest, bloodiest red background they could find.
Your brains are being manipulated. We do not need to be frightened into compliance for doing the right thing. Education is the key. But let’s keep our kids out of school and their parent too frightened to go to the beach.
GINGER1 – Why would the CDC be lying about stats? What benefit would it incur by doing so?
We were fortunate to have lived young lives without a pandemic going on. But yes, myself, I would not likely be hugging and going to parties if there was a pandemic going on when I was young.
Surgical masks are not working ?
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=05cf19c247&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1672493821712310570&th=1735e4450432a12a&view=att&disp=safe
I know bacteria is often times good, but I surely feel safer wearing a mask knowing the outcome of this study.
SacJon – government agencies, iike CDC, need to justify their continued existence and budget increase demands. So yes, they have plenty of reason to lie — we are facing the Zombie Apocalypse- send money! — – and continue to demand more money if any of their work product deficiencies are exposed. This is a truism when spending OPM: Government work expands to consume all available resources. Only when spending your own money, is there hope to get cost:benefit value in return. OPM is a very seductive, but inefficient lubricant.
How do we get to herd immunity without increasing numbers of positive cases – which are still running almost 99% fully recovered and/or asymptomatic.
In the beginning of the CV crisis, they co-mingled influenza and COVID stats, so neither was of any value. Easiest fix, make it go away. Later, they listed hospitalization stats, for which they had decent influenza data, and called it COVID. Then, it was found out that the vast majority of states/hospitals did not report (and still do not) COVID hospitalizations and so they simply deleted that section of the FluView and COVIDView web pages.
And now, even you will have to acknowledge that the reported deaths are far from accurate and about to get even worse, with no requirement for proof of CV infection to declare cause of death COVID-19.
Now go to their COVID page and observe this: week ending July 4 they reported that deaths decreased and were lower than the threshold to be considered epidemic, having decreased from 6.9% to 5.5% week 27. (I have screenshot, because that is now deleted.) For the week 28 ending July 11 they reported the rate continues to decrease and the level is now above epidemic and report the week 27 data as 8.1% (remember they wrote 5.5%) and week 28 at 6.4%. How can that be? Here’s how: they do not want to report that the US fatality rate is below epidemic. So they just changed the numbers.
Is that clear enough for you? So go ahead, keep trusting what “they” tell you. I don’t know which is worse, cable news or the government. They both lie to secure their narrative and we are left dazed and confused. Seems to be their plan.
We were fortunate to have grown up with polio and pre-antibiotics childhood illnesses. Taught us good survival and hygiene skills. Keep calm and carry on.
GINGER1 – you failed to answer my question. WHY are they intentionally deceiving us?What does the CDC have to gain from lying?
What do they have to gain by generating increased number of COVID death certificates by falsifying reporting?
What do they have to gain by raising mortality percentages so that they remain ABOVE epidemic threshold?
Did you not understand what I wrote about maintaining fear and panic? Perhaps they are right—the only way to get people to follow three simple rules (social distancing, mask wear when that’s not possible and in enclosed spaces (and they don’t mean your car!) and hand washing) is to scare the $h!t out of our citizens.
GINGER! – here, let me try to help you with this. I’m asking what would the CDC gain from intentionally falsifying the numbers and lying to us? What good does it do them? How will they benefit from making the numbers higher than they are?
CDC just said if every.single.person in the US started wearing a mask today, we could get this well under control in 4-8 weeks. That is worth it to me. Wear a mask.
SANDYS: 21 weeks ago the CDC issued statements like this tweet from Feb 27: “CDC does not currently recommend the use of facemasks to help prevent novel #coronavirus. ” If the CDC just said that we could get this under control in 4-8 week, think where’d we be if they said that 21 weeks ago. I’ve always been a proponent of wearing masks, even when the CDC said not to. As far as I, and many others are concerned, the CDC has lost all credibility with this and other backtracked pronouncements. As the saying goes, you only have one time to make a first impression. I’ll continue to wear my mask, but I completely understand why some people won’t listen to health officials anymore.
Why do you say masks are not working? I don’t know that.
Thank you SBLetsgetalong,
Good to see critical thinking and math skills. Yes, I’m concerned about the .04% of Americans at risk.
Am also concerned about the 48 million Americans who lost their job, also all my friends who worked extremely hard for decades to establish and maintain, that are destroyed by a politically motivated public health decree.
The fact remains that according to the CDC’s records, in 2017, the flu killed 126,000 U.S. Citizens.
In 2020, that number increased 10% to 138,000.
Given these numbers, here is the big question, so were me wrong in 2017 not to shut the country down, or are we wrong now?
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’ ― Isaac Asimov
I think you nailed it 9:38. It’s actually illegal to market a medical device that has not been appropriately vetted in clinical trials and approved by the FDA. That’s why mask packaging includes a disclaimer stating that use of the product will not protect you from covid-19.
Universal mask mandate is nothing more than useless symbolism. There is no proof to support this mandate. Targeted mitigation is key among known vulnerable populations: elderly and very ill. Instead carry your kerchief mask in your pocket at all times, and your cover mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze. Wash your hands frequently and wash your pocket kerchief frequently.
In a super-majority blue state with term limits, there is little reason for anyone to vote in California.
Thank you SBGAlong.Some of the least hysterical logic I have read here in some time.
We were not wrong in either case. It is a false equivalency based on lack of educating one’s self. Coronavirus is not “the flu”. Throwing them both into one big pot is comparing apples and oranges, a proper color for this discussion. If it makes you feel better, that is OK, but please don’t inflict your ignorance on my health. Oh, and even if your numbers are correct even though no citation was included, we’re at 138,000 halfway through the seventh month of the year, and the cases are increasing exponentially. Your critical math skills could use a little work.
No idea where Riconer got his CDC alternative facts. According to their site 2017/2018 flu season (a very bad year) had 61,000 deaths. So yeah we have had more than twice as many deaths from Covid.
YES! VOTE BLUE to save our country!
AMEN to that. All the anti-mask idiocy is unbelievable. It’s not a political issue, it’s a health issue. Wear a mask. Do it for others. Do it for yourself.
masks DO work. Where are you getting the idea that they don’t? Look at Japan, they didn’t quarantine, they all wore masks and traced data. They got a handle on it early. SCIENCE.
Well, thank GOD California is liberal. And there is zero sarcasm in my statement. I’m so happy that my home state has a common sense governor who cares about people getting sick and tries to combat the orange moron in chief.
Why should we celebrate having to work a decade longer? I paid my whole life into SS and I deserve a retirement too.
@4:11pm, I’m sorry you’re confused. Seems to me that this person is now grateful to be alive and has a new respect for himself and others. Hence the mask wearing. Why deliberately troll?
Can spread it by breathing if you are infected. Especially if you are in a place that conditions air and blows it around. What do you get out of spreading this misinformation?