Doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech are arriving across the country today. More locations will receive doses by Wednesday, with the first vaccinations administered to health care workers.
“If everything goes according to plan, we will have a vaccine by the middle of next week — shipped directly from Pfizer to our hospitals: Cottage (in Santa Barbara) and Marian (Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria),” Dr. Ansorg told the News-Press Thursday.
He expects doses of the vaccine developed by Moderna, which has applied for emergency-use authorization from the FDA, by the end of the year.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots.
“We are in such desperate straits in the country and state in battling COVID,” said Dr. David Fisk, an infectious disease physician at Sansum Clinic said. “Having this promising development is really good news.”
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 145 new COVID-19 cases Sunday. No deaths were reported.
The city of Santa Maria reported 48 of those cases, bringing its total up to 5105 cases and 180 still infectious.
The city of Santa Barbara found 39 cases, with a total of 1912 cases and 154 active. The gap between the two cities’ case count is usually much higher.
The city of Goleta detected 19 cases (465 total, 38 active). The city of Lompoc had nine (1398 total, 99 active).
The community of Orcutt reported six cases (617 total, 36 active). The unincorporated areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama and the city of Guadalupe also had six (563 total, 22 active).
The unincorporated area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota detected four cases (362 total, 34 active).
The south county area, containing the communities of Montecito, Summerland and the city of Carpinteria, reported three cases (358 total, 31 active).
The community of Isla Vista had one case (569 total, 12 active), and the Santa Ynez Valley also reported one (294 total, 22 active).
The locations of nine cases are still pending.
A total of 687 Santa Barbara County health care workers have been infected with COVID-19.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
