Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 137 new cases of COVID-19 in the last two days, and nine additional fatalities.
Three of the deaths were from Wednesday, but were reported on Thursday due to delays in the state’s reporting system.
Six of the individuals that died were over the age of 70 and three were between the ages of 50 and 69. Seven of the individuals had underlying health conditions, and five were associated with an outbreak at a congregate care site, according to Public Health.
Seven of the individuals resided in Santa Barbara, one lived in Lompoc, and one was from Orcutt.
The county’s cumulative death count rose to 407.
COVID-19 hospitalizations rose slightly over the last two days, and there are currently 83 patients hospitalized with the virus. Of those, 19 require intensive care.
The county’s ICU availability dropped to 15.8% on Thursday, nearly 20 percentage points less than the availability reported on Tuesday.
Eighty-five of the new cases were from Wednesday, and 52 were reported on Thursday.
There were 422 cases still considered infectious throughout the county.
As of Feb. 22, the county had administered 80,634 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the county’s Community Data Dashboard.
About half of the total administered doses were of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the Pfizer vaccine can now be stored at standard freezer temperatures for a period of up to two weeks, making the doses easier to transport and store, the agency said in a statement.
Initially, the vaccines had to be stored in ultra-low temperature freezers between -112 degrees and -76 degrees, according to the FDA.
“This alternative temperature for transportation and storage of the undiluted vials is significant and allows the vials to be transported and stored under more flexible conditions,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
“The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low-cold storage equipment for vaccination sites, and should help to get vaccine to more sites.”
In order to vaccinate more vulnerable populations, the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI) has begun distributing the vaccine to Santa Barbara’s diabetic community, specifically older Hispanic/Latino adults living with diabetes, according to Katie Haq, assistant director of marketing and communications at Sansum.
“At SDRI, we are following the science by targeting the group with one of the highest risks from COVID-19, namely Latino adults with diabetes,” said Dr. David Kerr, SDRI’s director of research and innovation.
“With the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to see a disproportionate number of Latino adults hospitalized because of COVID-19, and with diabetes, the risk of an extremely serious outcome from the infection is increased dramatically.”
SDRI administered its first doses on Jan. 27.
As vaccine supply becomes more readily available, SDRI plans to expand vaccination to other Latinos with diabetes at a younger age, those who are essential workers, and non-Latinos with diabetes, Haq said.
Those over the age of 65 and with Type 1 diabetes will also be eligible for the vaccine once it is available, she added.
The state recently contracted with Blue Shield of California to directly allocate vaccine doses to healthcare providers instead of through public health departments, a transition that will be coming to Santa Barbara County in several weeks.
Santa Barbara County Public Health will then shift its focus to vaccinating the hard-to-reach populations as a safety net provider, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said at a Noozhawk panel on Feb. 18.
The state also launched a new notification and vaccine appointment registration called MyTurn, which will become a go-to place for community members to find out if they are eligible to be vaccinated and register for appointments, Do-Reynoso said.
The website was in the pilot stage for a few counties as of late February, but will eventually be available for the whole state.
— 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.
