In the most extensive update to date, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department revealed that 37 of the now 192 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county are healthcare workers on Monday.
It is unclear whether any of those workers are among the 34 in the hospital, including 19 in the intensive care unit.
The North County continues to be the hardest hit, with 15 of Monday’s 18 cases in the north, including eight in Lompoc, five in Santa Maria and two in Orcutt. Overall, the North County accounts for 132 of the 192 confirmed cases.
While the exact age was not available at press time, the county did reveal its fourth case of a youth between 0 and 17 years old.
Nine of Monday’s cases featured those between 50-69, the hardest hit age group of all with 83 of the 192 cases.
Cottage updates its numbers
A day after announcing that a patient died due to complications from COVID-19, Cottage Health offered an update:
- Cottage is caring for 132 patients; 241 beds remain available.
- Of the 132 patients, 11 patients are on ventilators; 49 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators)
- Of the 132 patients, 18 patients are in isolation for COVID-19 symptoms; 12 are confirmed COVID-19 positive.
- Of the 18 patients in isolation, 8 patients are in critical care.
- Cottage has collected 1,275 cumulative test samples: 95 resulted in positive, 1,123 resulted in negative, and 57 are pending
Goleta City Council goes virtual today
For the first time, the Goleta City Council will convene virtually, with all members to participate remotely. The closed session will begin at 4:30 p.m., while the regular session starts at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be available on Channel 19 and at tinyurl.com/goletameetings.
The agenda is lengthy, including the following topics pertaining to COVID-19:
- The council will consider whether or not to authorize hotel operators upon written request, to defer the payment of the transient occupancy tax (TOT) for two months.
- Staff is proposing that council consider amending Resolution No. 20-18 to impose penalties for administrative citations for violations of eviction prohibitions that are higher than the standard penalties prescribed Chapter 1.02 of the Municipal Code.
- Council is being asked to consider an Urgency Ordinance which would add a penalty provision to any violation of Goleta Municipal Code Title 2 Chapter 2.10 (emergency organization).
- Staff proposes certain amendments to the purchasing ordinance in Chapter 3.05 of the Goleta Municipal Code in order to streamline operational processes and improve efficiencies, including: (1) increasing the City Manager’s authority for supplies/equipment, general services and professional services from $30,000 to $60,000; (2) allowing the City Manager to make nonfinancial amendments to contracts; (3) allowing the City Manager to enter into agreements with other entities to receive monies as tax revenue or grant funds; (4) allowing the City Manager to enter into agreements with other entities who the City Council has determined to be a recipient of a City grant; (5) conform the contract amounts of public work projects with the Commission’s recommendations; and (6) allowing City Manager to join in the professional services contracts on regional efforts led by other government entities and to directly contract with other government entities for services without following the Request for Proposals process. The proposed amendment is aimed at streamlining Council agendas and staff resources.
The public can participate virtually by sending a public comment on an agenda item to cityclerkgorup@cityofgoleta.org. Your email must state that you’d like your comments “read into the record.”
You can also participate by phone after you email cityclerkgroup@cityofgoleta.org to ask to be added to the speaker list, stating your name, phone number and what item you’d like to speak on.
The city is then instructing those people to call 866-580-6521 at 5:20 p.m. The participant passcode is 72295187#. The city asks that you mute your phone until you are called on to speak.
COVID-19, by the numbers
Here are updates statewide, nationwide and worldwide:
- In California, there are now 16,363 confirmed cases, with 387 deaths.
- Santa Barbara County now has more than twice the cases than that of San Luis Obispo County (192-95).
- In the United States, there are 368,241 confirmed cases, which is nearly triple that of Spain (136,675) and Italy (132,547). There are now nearly 11,000 deaths in the U.S., while just under 20,000 have fully recovered.
- Worldwide, there are now 1,347,892 cases with 74,808 deaths. There have been 284,802 that have fully recovered.
email: nmasuda@newspress.com
