Edhat Staff
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash
By edhat staff
Public Health officials announced another COVID-19 related death in Santa Barbara County and an increase of 20 new cases during a press conference Thursday.
This marks the third death in the county as the total number of cases reaches 354. Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg stated the latest victim was previously in Hospice care in the South County with underlying health conditions. They were over 75 years of age and succumbed to the disease while in Hospice care.
“Public Health shares our deepest condolences with the family and friends of this community member,” said Dr. Ansorg. “We continue to ask for the support of every resident as we move forward and get through this difficult time. Only with the help of every person in our community will we make a difference in slowing the spread of this virus.”
Of the 354 total cases, there are 159 people quarantined at home, 137 have fully recovered, 39 are hospitalized with 14 of those in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 3 deaths. Of the 20 new cases, the ages range from teens to over 70 and eight of the cases are related to the outbreak at the Lompoc Prison.
Dr. Ansorg confirmed the hospitalizations and ICU cases have plateaued and are approaching a downward trend, which is a good sign. However, community members must still practice social distancing and good hygiene to prevent a resurgence of cases.
Supervisor Gregg Hart addressed reports of groups of people congregating in local parks and beaches and stated the rules must still be followed.
“Planning to open our community back up for business does not in any way change the continuing imperative to follow the existing Public Health orders,” said Hart. “We cannot let our guard down at this time and must continue to follow the three simple virus protection measures.”
Ventura and SLO Counties
Ventura County is reporting 19 new cases bringing their total to 384. Of the 384 cases, 191 have fully recovered, 27 are in the hospital with 9 in the ICU, and there have been 13 deaths. Of those who have died, 2 people were in their 50s with the remainder in their 70s and 80s.
San Luis Obispo County is reporting 125 confirmed cases with 104 fully recovered, 16 recovering at home, 4 hospitalizations, and 1 death.
Cottage Health Numbers
Below is a status update as of April 16, 2020.
· Cottage Health is caring for a total of 201 patients across all campuses.
· 157 are acute care patients; 216 acute care beds remain available.
· In surge planning, capacity is identified for adding 270 acute care beds.
· Of the 157 patients, 11 patients are on ventilators; 54 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators)
· Of the 157 patients, 15 are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms; 14 are confirmed COVID-19 positive.
· Of 15 patients in isolation, 6 patients are in critical care.
· Cottage has collected 1,946 cumulative test samples: 160 resulted in positive, 1,725 resulted in negative, and 61 are pending. In most of these tests, patients did not require hospital admission.
Supply Donations
Cottage Health continues to welcome supply donations at its Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital parking lot drop-off center, open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Handmade masks are welcome donations to be used by non-clinical hospital staff.
Now that we are on a month of lockdown, how are there new cases. I think the public deserves to know how these ppl likely or did contract it now. Grocery store? Not social distancing? From the mail, a package, take out from a restaurant, delivery? How? I feel we deserve to know this at this point considering these new cases cannot be from previously not being under lockdown as more than 14 days have passed.
Please…. they were in their 80’s and on Hospice care. Do we need a sensational headline (?)
I agree. Would really like more information on how people are getting this.
People PLEASE. Keeping our citizens informed as to how many Coronavirus deaths have been suffered is a “SENSATIONAL HEADLINE”??? Honestly, now. And to the person demanding to know how, during a lockdown, HOW people are, in relatively low numbers, sometimes still getting infected??? Come ON!! Of course people are still going to get the virus. As for demanding to know how/where/why they caught it?? Who knows? But being all “HARRUMPH” and insisting to know where they got it, good luck my friend. People can get it anywhere, any time, even while being very careful. Slow your roll on being all demanding of answers. It’s apparent that you know nothing about how this virus is spreading, if you say things like “these new cases can not be from previously not being under lockdown”. Spreading false facts is NOT helping.
Also, “Now that we are on a month of lockdown, how are there new cases?” Huh?? We are going to grocery stores, getting gas for our cars, walking around outdoors, and, you know, unavoidably touching things when needed. And breathing. What we call “lockdown” doesn’t mean what you think it means; it doesn’t mean people are sealing themselves in ZipLoc bags at home 24/7. Look around: There are people out there. Certain necessary aspects of life need to go on, the most vital being “obtaining food”. If the advised “lockdown” all around the world meant “no virus spread” then we’d have nothing to worry about! But that isn’t the case.
But you see, if I were to come down with it now, I would be truly mystified as to how I got it. I’m being that careful. I want to know, are the newly infected being less careful than I? I’ve only shopped twice, and was wearing a mask, took all kinds of precautions. I just want information. I don’t expect to get any, but it would be nice.
How does it spread? Drive by East Beach and see all the people playing volleyball, and other groups at the beach and parks. The under 40 crowd that just doesn’t get it…that has a double meaning, obviously. But they pass it on to others who do, and BOOM—people die.
Still, the death rate is .0006 %of the population…I guess I can live with that.
But you see, 5550, there’s no WAY to know how you got it, if you get it, usually. Any number of ways, even if you’re being careful. Just take precautions out there, and don’t worry so much about hypotheticals. And when you say “i just want information but don’t expect to get any”, what do you mean? There’s plenty of science-based information about this whole situation, everywhere. Try the CDC website, NPR, the WHO website, or your choice of news source. It’s really the only thing any source is talking about these days. Hard to believe you can’t get information about Covid-19 right now.
So because I hang out at the beach I’m spreading coronavirus that I don’t even have to people in hospice? Get a grip, this thing is eating your brain.
That’s probably the most ignorant comment i’ve ever seen here on Edhat. It is those without symptoms who view this as a hoax or take it lightly and flaunt their selfishness who are infecting a chain of people. Sure, only one person may die, but you are fine with your conscience because those people would eventually die?
NATURE BOY you really don’t seem to know much about this virus. It is not spread through “breathing” as you seem to claim. We were first told – no masks they don’t help, now masks supposedly help. We are told, keep 6 feet of distance and you’ll be fine. Risk of transmission very very unlikely through “touching things’ as long as you do not touch your own face without first washing your hands. It’s quite simple really. So the point is – obviously, these precautions are not working either that or, we need more information as to how these ppl caught this. If it is due to ignoring social distancing then that is one thing and understandable. But if not then the public deserves to know. We’ve been misled by both the CDC and WHO so why anyone with a brain would check those sources is beyond me. They were both either wrong or lying all along.
Considering for the longest time we were told no masks they do nothing now suddenly masks are so important, at a minimum the public deserves to know if these people were following all currently recommended protocols or not. If they were, stringently, I’d like to know. I also think that if there is any common denominator – such as a particular establishment having been frequented, we should know that too because perhaps that establishment is not enforcing social distancing or proper sanitizing protocols.
Going on a walk? Sitting in the sand? I’m not allowed to breath fresh air now? How is that flaunting selfishness or assuming this is a hoax? I can’t believe the mental consequence this virus is having on people. What a mess.
If the powers at be truly wanted people not to get CV and care about the health care workers, then there would be more transparency in specific locations where the people got CV and how they got it. This is such a politically motivated situation. If I got it would would see it as my civic duty. The past 2 weeks I went to east beach once, wore a mask, did not touch anything, and did not come into contact with anyone. I went to Von’s on Turnpike twice, it was fairly busy, I wore a mask and gloves, etc.. oh I also took a trip to Ventura and visited a bunch of family members – of which one person also has CV. This little bit of info is meaningful in trying to assess what is going. My take is that there is a concentration risk around certain demographics. But to expose this info to the general publish would be considered politically incorrect – in which case the converse it is better not to and let more people get CV.
8:59 that is NOT the death rate if no intervention is taken. Not even close.
Nature Boy, I do realize that we need to keep following the distancing rules, etc. My point (I was the 8:32 pm poster) is that ideally I would like info on how the newly sick think they contracted the disease. The epidemiologists would also like that info; it is not a stupid concept. There may still be things we don’t know, and tracing contacts could be helpful. Like at first they didn’t know that asymptomatic people were spreading the disease, and we still don’t know what percentage of people are asymptomatic. I’m not “worrying about hypotheticals,” I’m just curious.
I agree, I think there is a lot of cooking the books going on. Since this first started they’ve been including presumptive covid19 deaths even if there wasn’t a postive test. Recently instruction has been given to keep doing the same. In addition, cases like the hospice case mentioned are attributed to covid19 even though there were literally on deaths doorstep, a cold or flue would have pushed them over the edge as well if not whatever ailment that put them in hospice. When pulling out these cases the mortality rate drops tremendously.
here’s an actual look at the mortality https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-simple-model-of-coronavirus-pandemic.html
The results of the Stanford COVID-19 antibody study are out. 2.5-4.2% of those tested were positive for the antibody. This is for SantaClara County which has a population of 2 million. A 2.5-4.2% positive antibody rate would correspond to 48,000-81,000 infections, but only 1,000 infections are reported for that county. I think there are several among us who got this earlier and are already recovered, only more data can confirm my suspicion. I wish we had antibody testing here. ***
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/antibody-research-coronavirus-widespread/story?id=70206121&cid=social_twitter_abcn
Sure, but so much for that massive herd immunity you were telling us about prior to these results coming out. 2% infection rate does not for herd immunity make. Especially considering the pool of those tested was not random. People self-identified as wanting to see if they had antibodies by signing up to participate after seeing ads. So you can imagine the figures are possibly somewhat skewed toward positive infections if people who were already sick in the last few months, etc. are the ones who signed up.