A day after announcing that there were 15 new positive COVID-19 cases, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department unveiled 17 additional positive cases on Saturday, bringing the county total to 64.
Half of that total has been revealed over the past 24 hours.
Of the cases revealed Saturday, nine reside in Santa Maria, five are in Santa Barbara, two are in the Montecito/Summerland/Carpinteria area and one was reported in Lompoc.
- Santa Barbara: 25
- Santa Maria: 19
- Montecito/Summerland/Carpinteria: 8
- Orcutt: 5
- Goleta: 2
- Lompoc: 2
- Santa Ynez Valley: 2
- Unincorporated area of Goleta Valley/Gaviota: 1
A day after announcing that there were 15 new positive COVID-19 cases, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department unveiled 17 additional positive cases on Saturday, bringing the county total to 64.
Half of that total has been revealed over the past 24 hours.
Of the cases revealed Saturday, nine reside in Santa Maria, five are in Santa Barbara, two are in the Montecito/Summerland/Carpinteria area and one was reported in Lompoc. The breakdown of cases is as follows:
- Santa Barbara: 25
- Santa Maria: 19
- Montecito/Summerland/Carpinteria: 8
- Orcutt: 5
- Goleta: 2
- Lompoc: 2
- Santa Ynez Valley: 2
- Unincorporated area of Goleta Valley/Gaviota: 1
The age breakdown for Saturday’s new cases was four in their 50s, four in their 40s, two in their 70s, four in their 60s and three in their 20s.
Overall, the age breakdown is:
- 0-17: 2
- 18-29: 13
- 30-49: 16
- 50-69: 29
- 70+: 4
Of the 64, the PHD indicated that 47 are recovering at home, six are recovering in a hospital — three in the ICU — and 11 have fully recovered.
Santa Barbara County is gaining significant ground on Ventura County, which announced that it now had 98 cases, with three deaths. There have been no deaths to date in Santa Barbara County, which ranks 16th in the state for cases.
Here are other notable numbers:
- Among the top 20, only Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County and Fresno County have no deaths to date.
- Los Angeles County leads the state with 32 deaths and 1,818 cases, more than triple the number of Santa Clara County, which is second in the state.
- According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the number of coronavirus patients in ICU beds throughout California doubled overnight, moving from 200 to 410.
- Gov. Newsom also indicated that the number of hospitalizations grew by nearly 40%, moving from 746 to 1,034.
- Finally, Gov. Newsom also indicated that the federal government had delivered 170 ventilators to L.A. County, all of which are not working and being repaired in Silicon Valley.
- There are now 5,682 confirmed cases in California with 121 deaths, while the U.S. has 121,478 cases and 2,026 deaths.
- The U.S. deaths have doubled over the past two days.
- Worldwide cases jumped to 664,924, with 30,848 deaths.
County strikes partnership with Foodbank
In an effort to continue to gather more personal protection equipment from the community, Santa Barbara County announced a partnership with the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County to help acquire these items.
Starting Monday, several locations throughout the county where donations can be made will be established.
Here are the items that officials are looking for:
- N95 masks (NIOSH-approved)
- Surgical and procedure masks (FDA-approved)
- Exam gloves (powder free; nitrile or latex preferred)
- Isolation gowns/coveralls
- Hospital grade cleaning wipes
- Hand Sanitizer
- Eye protection:
- Face Shields
- Goggles
- Safety Glasses
- Thermometers
- Disposable
- Non-contact/temporal scanner
There are criteria to be met in order for the donation to be accepted:
- Sealed, original packaging
- Not expired (with the exception of NIOSH-approved N95 masks in accordance with the Emergency Use Authorization)
- No stains, odors or tears
Donations will be accepted at the following locations:
- Santa Maria United Boys & Girls Club (Evans Park, 200 W Williams St.)
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. - Santa Barbara United Boys & Girls Club (602 W Anapamu St)
Monday – Friday 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. - Goleta United Boys & Girls Club (5701 Hollister Ave.)
Monday – Friday 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. - Carpinteria United Boys & Girls Club (4849 Foothill Rd.)
Every other Wed beginning March 25 from 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. - Carpinteria City Hall (5775 Carpinteria Ave.)
Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. - Lompoc United Boys & Girls Club (1025 W Ocean Ave.)
Monday – Friday 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
A note from Solvang’s mayor
As businesses continue to feel the effects to stay-at-home mandates, plus adjusting their own practices on the fly, Solvang Mayor Ryan Toussaint sent a lengthy note to residents.
Here are highlights:
- “Yesterday, March 27, 2020, after careful review of the needs to continue providing essential services — in particular, Sheriff’s contract, water, wastewater, maintenance and critical assistance to our residents and devastated business community — the city sadly found it necessary to lay off eight employees whose job duties do not fall within essential services categories. We had also done a thorough review of city private service provider contracts, and have either cut those contracts or shifted them to focus on provision of essential public services and recovery.”
- “ . . .the City must prioritize essential services to the community such as the above-mentioned services, as well as facility maintenance and economic mitigation and recovery, so our business community will survive and the city’s economic engine will be able to recover when we can reopen.”
- “It is important for the community to understand that over 60% of our general fund revenue comes from tourism, a very high ratio in comparison to many other cities, which makes Solvang particularly vulnerable in this situation.”
- “We have already received questions about the timing of the $250,000 Emergency Loan Assistance Program for Solvang small businesses suffering COVID-19-related losses due to the economic cessation surrounding the pandemic. This Emergency Loan Program is meant to provide immediate, short-term relief to Solvang businesses to keep cash-flow going. In this way, our local businesses can continue to employ their own essential employees and keep their businesses while the more complex process for state and federal recovery funding is put in place (we are requiring businesses to immediately pay back those city loans when they receive SBA loan funds, allowing the city to spread its initial investment to even more struggling businesses).”
- We are looking at possibly losing well over $1 million in city revenue over the course of the next two months alone, from just the loss of TOT and sales tax. If this public health emergency runs even longer than that, we will incur further expense while losing even more of that revenue. There simply isn’t a situation which would be a win-win for everyone involved. It would be irresponsible for the city to NOT do anything about this financial situation. This is not a recession, this is cessation, and therefore given Solvang’s dependency could impact the city far greater than the 2008/9 recession.”
email: nmasuda@newspress.com
