A sixth person in Santa Barbara County has died from the coronavirus/COVID-19.
County Public Health officials said on Friday that the person died at a Lompoc hospital and was in their 60s with underlying health conditions.
Although the Lompoc Valley Medical Center is the only hospital in the community, LVMC officials deny that the death occurred there.
“There was no such death at our facility,” said Steve Popkin, chief executive officer for the Lompoc Valley Medical Center.
County officials said nine more people tested positive for the coronavirus for a total of 460 cases.
Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso acknowledged, however, that the numbers might not be complete because the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the past two days has stopped reporting the number of COVID-19 deaths at the Lompoc penitentiary. Van Do-Reynoso said she knows of 133 cases at the prison, 32 of whom are employees.
“Unfortunately, we have not had an update recently in the past two days, so we are working with the prison to get the updated numbers,” Do-Reynoso said.
Van Do-Reynoso said that 60 percent of the 460 people with the coronavirus have fully recovered. The number of newly confirmed cases has seen a steady decline in the past week.
“This is a notable statistic,” Van Do-Reynoso said. “Fully recovered means they are no longer symptomatic or infectious, and they have met their entire quarantine and isolation periods. This trend is important because the risk of transmission from our confirmed cases is also declining as people recover.”
Of the new cases, five were from Santa Maria, two were from Lompoc, one was from Santa Barbara, and one was from the uincorporated areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama and New Cuyama or the city of Guadalupe
According to the county, 38 people were recovering at a hospital, with 13 in the intensive care unit.
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— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.