On Wednesday, Santa Barbara County announced 20 new cases of COVID-19, none of which came from the federal prison complex in Lompoc.
The new cases now bring the county’s total to 1,624. Of the total cases, 28 people are recovering in a hospital, with 10 in the Intensive Care Unit, while 82 are recovering at home.
There remains only 12 deaths in the county, the most of which come from Santa Maria with three.
To date, there have been 1,396 cases of recovery in the community total, including 883 from the Federal Prison Complex in Lompoc.
According to the county, there are 971 total confirmed cases in the prison system in Lompoc, 86 of which are still active.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, the federal department that operates the Lompoc facilities, there are 90 active cases in the Lompoc facilities.
At the Federal Correctional Institute Lompoc, 19 inmates and eight staff members have tested positive. At the U.S. Penitentiary Lompoc, 53 inmates and 10 staff members.
have tested positive.
To date, 994 inmates have recovered, including 884 in the Federal Correctional Institute, as well as 24 staffers from both locations combined.
In the past week, much progress has taken place in opening up Santa Barbara’s local economy. The ability to separate the federal prison’s COVID-19 numbers from county’s community members as a whole has allowed SBC to open up with more pace.
As a result, Santa Barbara Board Chairman Gregg Hart shared his pleasure in seeing local businesses open back up.
“Early reports from all over the county from Carpentaria to Solvang to Santa Maria indicates substantially increased business activity over the holiday weekend. Our local economy is coming back to life,” Mr. Hart said.
Mr. Hart added that thousands of businesses have already self certified through the county’s website that they are ready to safely reopen.
“Gasoline sales are reported to be back to nearly 70% pre COVID-19 levels,” Mr. Hart shared.
Mr. Hart also discussed new guidelines the county has taken due to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new state guidelines regarding local faith based organizations, as well as salons and barbershops.
“All faith-based religious organizations are now authorized to resume smaller scale in person services at their place of worship with safe operating procedures,” Mr. Hart said.
“Hair salons and barbershops have now reopened (as well). I heard this morning stylists around the county are feverishly preparing to open. They are bracing to fix do it yourself haircuts and coloring has gone wrong.”
Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, the Santa Barbara Public Health Department director, also shared a new community guideline regarding graduation ceremonies. She described protocols that need to be followed.
email: jmercado@newspress.com
