Santa Barbara County moved backward to the most-restrictive purple tier on Monday, and the subsequent county closures and restrictions will come into effect Tuesday at midnight.

Under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, counties in the purple tier will have to cease indoor operations of restaurants, zoos, museums, aquariums, movie theaters, gyms, fitness centers, card rooms, wineries and tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, and places of worship.

Under the new restrictions, retail and shopping centers will need to reduce capacity from 50% to 25%. 

However, on Tuesday the county Board of Supervisors voted to craft a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom to have the purple tier amended to allow churches and places of worship the same provisions as retail.

Bars, breweries, and distilleries are only allowed to operate outside if they sell food with any purchase of alcohol.

“We recognize that this news takes time to filter throughout the community, and that these changes are not easily achieved overnight,” said Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso. “I understand that it may take a matter of two to three days to reach full compliance.”

Under the purple tier, any school that has not already opened for in-person instruction may only do so through the K-6 waiver process, or wait until the county returns to and stays in the substantial red tier for two weeks.

County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino proposed sending a letter to the state asking for places of worship to be allowed the same indoor capacity as retail, with a 25% limit, in the purple tier. With the currenth health officer order, people can only gather outside at places of worship.  (Screenshot via CSBTV)

Any K-12 schools that have already reopened may remain open, according to the state’s guidelines.

Santa Barbara County is one of 40 counties to have moved back a tier on Monday, according to Do-Reynoso, and the vast increase of cases statewide caused Gov. Newsom to announce the utilization of the state’s ‘emergency brake.’ 

“Due to this unprecedented surge in the rate of increase of cases of COVID-19 in every region of the state, the California Department of Public Health implemented immediate changes to its tier assignment process,” Do-Reynoso said.

Tier assignments typically came on Tuesdays, but now may occur any day of the week and more than once a week when CDPH deems it necessary.

Counties can now be moved back more than one tier if there is a need for intensive intervention, and can move after only one week of metrics, Do-Reynoso said.

Between Nov. 2 and Nov. 16, Santa Barbara County experienced a 6% increase in cases overall, and a 148% increase in active cases, Do-Reynoso reported.

Only two regions of the county reported a decrease in active cases during that rating period: Isla Vista which dropped from 37 active cases to 13, and Lompoc which dropped from 25 to 20.

The county’s adjusted case rate for this rating period is 7.1 daily new cases per 100,000 people, just barely meeting the criteria of the purple tier, which encompasses counties with more than seven daily new cases per 100,000 people. The testing positivity rate is 2.7%, which meets the criteria for the minimal orange tier.

The state did not calculate the health equity metric for this rating period because no county is moving forward, Do-Reynoso said.

Santa Barbara County saw a vast increase of cases in the clerical management sector for the week ended  Nov. 7.

Occupational information reported by people who test positive has changed over the course of the pandemic, and recent interviews found a large increase among people who work in office settings (“clerical/management” on this chart), Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said.  (Public Health Department photo)

While clerical management accounts for only 10.4% of the county’s cumulative case count, it made up 19.1% of cases for that week, Do-Reynoso reported.

The Board of Supervisors urged Public Health to encourage telecommuting for those in office settings in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus.

College and university students make up 6.1% of the county’s cumulative case count, but 16.5% of the cases for the same week.

Contact tracing interviews with people who recently tested positive show increasing shares of people who work in office settings, people who are college and university students, and people under the age of 18. Most of the newly-reported cases in the under-18 age group are teenagers, not young children, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said.  (Public Health Department photo)

In partnership with Public Health, UC Santa Barbara encouraged students who are returning home for the Thanksgiving holiday to consider staying there.

“I hope that people will continue to take strong steps to reduce transmission and keep an eye on the bigger picture,” said First District Supervisor Das Williams. “Perhaps we can stay united in the need to reduce transmissions so we can save lives, save our kids’ educations, save businesses, and save jobs.”

Public Health officials reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and no additional deaths.

The county has a cumulative case count of 10,612 and a death toll of 133.

With the 36 new cases, Tuesday’s daily testing positivity rate was 2.5%, and the seven-day rolling community positivity rate was 3.1%.

There were 356 new cases reported in the last seven days, averaging 50.9 new cases per day. This is significantly more than the 249 new cases reported the previous week, which averaged only 35.6 new cases per day.

There are 255 active cases, meaning still infectious, throughout the county.

Hospitalization numbers continue to slowly rise, with 15 COVID-19 patients in local hospitals. Five of those patients require intensive care.

Santa Maria reported 12 new cases on Tuesday, and Santa Barbara reported seven. There were four new cases in Lompoc, and the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area and Isla Vista each had three new cases. 

There were two new cases in Orcutt. Goleta, the unincorporated area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota, and the Santa Ynez Valley each reported one. Two cases are currently pending location.

There were no new cases reported in the Lompoc Federal Prison or in the unincorporated areas of North County.

Additionally, on Nov. 14, two custody deputies at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department tested positive for COVID-19.

One of the deputies began experiencing symptoms on the afternoon of Nov. 14 and sought testing, according to sheriff’s spokesman Erik Raney.

The other deputy sought testing after being notified through contact tracing of a potential exposure in Los Angeles County, Raney reported.

Both deputies last worked in the custody facility on Nov. 12.

— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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