Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) reported ten new COVID-19 cases within the community during a press conference Monday.
The total cases have now reached 1,669, with 971 belonging to the outbreak in the Federal Prison in Lompoc. PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso confirmed 99% of cases in the prison are in full recovery with no new cases reported today.
Within the community, approximately 84% of cases have fully recovered. There are currently 115 active cases with 29 hospitalizations including 9 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
A testing drive in Guadalupe received 200 participants with results expected tomorrow. The state-funded testing site in Lompoc will move to Solvang this coming Friday. Appointments can be made for all testing locations at https://lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 833-688-5551.
County Supervisor Gregg Hart addressed the recent protests within the county and nation regarding police brutality following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis.
“It is important to say aloud that Black Lives Matter,” said Hart. He continued to say he commits to being an ally to address systemic racism in our community by collaborating with local organizations to confront racial disparities.
Local protests that took place over the weekend drew thousands to gather together in sometimes close quarters, raising some concerns another COVID-19 outbreak or spike in cases could appear in the next few weeks.
Hart said he was impressed by local organizations who took great care to ask participants to remain safe, wear face coverings, and practice physical distancing during the peaceful demonstrations.
Dr. Do-Reynoso confirmed a spike in cases could hinder further reopening of the local economy. She said the county must ensure a steady decline or stabilization in hospital rates and new COVID-19 cases.
“We get to determine when we can reopen but the State determines how,” she said.
Cottage Health Numbers
The below numbers are broken down from the grand total above. This is the status of Cottage Health as of June 1, 2020.
- Cottage Health is caring for a total of 229 patients across all campuses.
- 185 are acute care patients; 188 acute care beds remain available.
- In surge planning, capacity is identified for adding 270 acute care beds.
- Of the 185 acute care patients, 12 patients are on ventilators. 65 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators).
- Of the 185 acute care patients, 8 are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms; 5 are confirmed COVID-19 positive.
- Of 8 patients in isolation, 4 patients are in critical care.
From May 18-24:
- 1,452 COVID-19 laboratory tests were collected by Cottage Health.
- Results: 38 positive, 1,332 negative, 82 pending
From May 25-31:
- 1,708 COVID-19 laboratory tests were collected by Cottage Health.
- Results: 15 positive, 1,606 negative, 87 pending
Ventura & SLO Counties
As of Monday, San Luis Obispo County is reporting 271 confirmed cases. Of those, 253 have fully recovered, 12 are quarantined at home, 5 are hospitalized with 3 in the ICU, and there has been 1 death.
In Ventura County, 74 new cases were reported Monday for a total of 1,152. Of the total, 854 have recovered, 264 are quarantined at home, 18 are hospitalized with 11 in the ICU, and there have been 34 deaths.
Tourists, Protesters and the City’s roll out of State St. closure and lack of enforcement will increase the spread. Get ready for a shut down.
Blah blah blah. I’ve been hearing the same old story for weeks. But but but…the surge! The spikes! It’s been weeks maybe a month and we haven’t had it. What if covid is actually going away? Don’t any of you actually want things to get better/normal? I do.
“blah blah blah” sounds perfectly anti intellectual.
I outlined the “surge” a few weeks ago. To recap, weekend at the beach, then five days later an increase in cases. Protests down State St. the following week, and another surge in cases. Then Memorial Day weekend, and five days later another surge in cases. Yes, they are small upticks, but measurable and correlated. Are they of concern? Maybe not, but they are real and measurable. If they are within your, and the PHD tolerances, then so be it. I personally don’t care if we open up and the cases increase because I don’t think a vaccine is going to happen anytime soon and my money is on herd immunity. Just don’t act as if there isn’t a measurable response to the increase of people carelessly circulating and spreading the virus.
I think we should have, side by side every week, the % chances of getting cv & dying from cv, right next to the % chances of getting/dying from the flu, heart disease, suicide, car crash, bicycle crash, etc… and let people decide for themselves is life is worth living with risk. I’m tired of the government telling us. Life is risk. And SB is a pretty damn healthy place to live. We need to quit living in fear, strengthen our immune systems and get on with living. Open the stores, hug your neighbor, and let’s get back to normal.
Why is an update about the virus mentioning another reference to Floyd in it? That is ridiculous to have included Hart’s sentiments in this article.
I’ve got graphs that I’m keeping based on the daily updates. While SB seems to have flattened so far (jury’s still out on Memorial day weekend opening up)…that is not true of everywhere. Los Angeles, for example, still a bit of a hot mess. So where do they go when they want to get away?
The goal of keeping people home and out of crowded spaces is exactly this, to prevent the surge. If everything goes perfectly, at the end of it, we won’t have a surge/spike, and you can think to yourself, “what was the big deal?” That is the best case scenario. It’s disappointing that some people don’t seem to understand that.
Why is no one talking about this? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html CDC drastically revised their mortality and hospitalization statistics so now covid is pretty much in line with the flu (which is also very dangerous for the older and higher risk individuals).