State Reports 24 News Cases of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County | Local News
Twenty-four new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Santa Barbara County on Saturday compared to what the county reported the previous day, according to the California Department of Public Health.
To date, the county has tallied a total of 9,061 COVID-19 cases.
As of Saturday, the number of coronavirus deaths in the county remained at 113 — 110 in the community and three at the Lompoc Federal Prison Complex.
State officials reported that hospitals in the county had 21 coronavirus patients, plus another five suspected cases.
There were four intensive-care unit patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county, with one additional suspected case.
Fifteen of the patients are at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, four at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and two at Lompoc Valley Medical Center in the county.
Age groups and geographic locations of new COVID-19 cases were not immediately available because the state website does not include those details.
Over the past seven days, the county has reported an average of 28 cases per day as of Saturday, while the 14-day average was 30 cases per day, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The 7-day and 14-day averages are decreasing in the county.
The county’s seven-day average as of last Saturday — Sept. 19 — was 31 cases per day, while the 14-day average was 33 cases per day, according to the state.
The county Public Health Department is not providing updates on COVID-19 cases on weekends and holidays, the Surveillance Metrics Dashboard website said.
According to the state Public Health Department’s website, the COVID-19 “numbers do not represent true day-over-day change as these results include cases prior to yesterday.”
The county’s COVID-19 case numbers on its website and the state often don’t match.
The county falls in the state’s purple tier with “widespread” COVID-19 transmission.
As of last week, the county has met the criteria for the less-restrictive red tier, which indicates “substantial” spread of the virus, for one of the two consecutive weeks necessary to officially progress into the tier.
The state will officially allow the county to move into a less-restrictive tier on Tuesday if Santa Barbara County can achieve two consecutive weeks of red tier criteria, according to county officials.
The county needs to be assigned to the red tier for 14 days before schools can provide in-person instruction without state waivers.
County officials are expected to release COVID-19 reports for the weekend on Monday afternoon.
The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to receive an update on COVID-19 at its special meeting Tuesday.
The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s YouTube and online as well as being broadcast on CSBTV Channel 20.
Click here to read the full agenda report.
Click here to go to Noozhawk’s Coronavirus Crisis section.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
