Santa Barbara County has ended its COVID-19 state of emergency.
The official end came on Feb. 28 in alignment with the state of California. This was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 17.
“We have made notable progress in our fight against COVID-19. The first case in Santa Barbara County was reported on March 15, 2020. The Public Health Department swiftly formed a response center, with many staff working around the clock to protect the health of Santa Barbara County residents. Since then, the landscape of COVID-19 has dramatically changed,” Ryan Schumacher, assistant deputy director of community health and PIO for Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, told the News-Press in an email. “We now have vaccines for everyone 6 months and older. We have treatments for those infected. We have tests that can be done at home. We have complex models that predict surges and variant trends. The Public Health Department has played an instrumental role in ensuring each of these advances are available to our community. As of today, 70% of our residents received at least one dose of vaccine – that’s nearly 320,000.
“The state’s SMARTER Plan outlines the next phases of how the COVID efforts will continue. Specifically, Santa Barbara county residents will be able to continue to have access COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments,” said Mr. Schumacher.
The SMARTER Plan can be found at https://covid19.ca.gov/smarter/
More info on what’s changing was released by the state on Friday at 2 p.m. and can be found at https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR23-014.aspx.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
