The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 45 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total coronavirus cases in the county up to 9,760.
According to Friday’s numbers, a majority of the new daily cases, 18, were located in Santa Maria, while Isla Vista had the second most, 12.
Lompoc had three daily cases, Orcutt and Santa Barbara had two each, and Goleta, the South County Unincorporated Area, and the unincorporated area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota each had one daily case.
There was also one daily case throughout the unincorporated area consisting of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the city of Guadalupe.
Four daily cases from Friday are still pending.
During Friday’s press conference, 2nd District supervisor and Board of Supervisors chair Gregg Hart reported that recent outbreaks at fraternity and sorority houses in Isla Vista mean that Santa Barbara County is unlikely to move from the red tier to the less restrictive orange tier when it the board receives a report card from the state on Tuesday.
UCSB, Santa Barbara City College and county Public Health officials are sending a joint letter to all UCSB and SBCC students reminding them to comply with the Public Health order and the possible consequences for not complying. These consequences can include suspension and expulsion from school.
Of the 9,760 confirmed cases in Santa Barbara County, 9,511 are recovered and 129 are still infectious, As of Friday, 120 county residents who have died due to COVID-19.
Santa Maria is the locality with the most deaths in the county, 67. This is followed by Santa Barbara, with 13 deaths.
Santa Maria also has the highest number of still infectious cases, 37. It is closely followed by Isla Vista, which has 34 still infectious cases, and then by Lompoc, with 16. Santa Barbara has nine still infectious cases, the Santa Ynez Valley has six, the South County Unincorporated Area has four, Goleta and Orcutt have three, and the unincorporated area of the Goleta valley and Gaviota have two.
There are three still infectious cases scattered through the unincorporated areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the city of Guadalupe.
The locations of 12 still infectious cases are pending.
A plurality of the daily cases from Friday, 16, are in the 18-29 age group. The 50-69 age group had 12, the 30-49 age group had 11, and the 0-17 age group had six. There were no cases in the 70+ age range among Friday’s daily cases.
Thus far, Santa Barbara County has conducted 186,338 COVID-19 tests.
During Friday’s press conference, Public Health director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso said that over the last several weeks Santa Barbara County’s COVID-19 testing has averaged around 300 per 100,000 population. This exceeds the State median testing parameters of 239 per 100,000 population.
She added that the county’s testing positivity rate is continuing to trend downward.
In order to move into the orange tier, the county’s daily adjusted case rate must drop down to a seven day average that is between one and 3.9 per 100,000 population, or no more than 17 for Santa Barbara County.
“The orange tier is within our grasp. We’re almost there. If we only can work on decreasing our case rate,” Dr. Do-Reynoso said.
When community cases are combined with those in the Lompoc Federal Prison, 3,539 of Santa Barbara County’s coronavirus cases are individuals in the 30-49 age group. 2,907 are in the 18-29 age group, 1,943 are in the 50-69 age group, 816 are in the 0-17 age group, and 553 are 70 years old or older.
A total of 24 of Friday’s daily cases were female, while 20 were male. One was of unknown gender.
With community and prison cases included together, 5,344 of the county’s COVID-19 cases have been male, 4,305 have been female, and 111 are of unknown gender.
email: jgrega@newspress.com
.
