Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 83 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday — the highest daily number in nearly a month.
There have been 324 new cases reported over the last seven days, averaging about 46 new cases per day.
Public Health officials have said they will consider lifting the indoor mask mandate for public areas when the county’s case rate drops below 6 per 100,000 people and as of last week, the case rate was 9.7 per 100,000 residents.
The department also reported the COVID-19-related death of a Santa Maria resident on Thursday, bringing the county’s cumulative death toll to 549. The person who died was over the age of 70 and had no underlying medical conditions, according to the Public Health Department.
There were 33 COVID-19-positive patients receiving treatment in county hospitals on Thursday, including nine people in intensive-care units.
Of the new cases reported on Thursday, 41 were from the Santa Maria Valley and nine were from Santa Barbara. The Goleta Valley reported eight new cases, the Lompoc Valley added seven, the unincorporated areas of South County logged six, the Santa Ynez Valley had four, and Isla Vista reported one.
There were seven cases still pending geographic location.
Roughly 66% of all eligible Santa Barbara County residents were vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the county’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
Local vaccine providers are seeing increased demand for COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots, and the Lompoc Valley Medical Center suggests people make appointments for its weekly Friday vaccination clinics.
More than 350 people already made appointments for this Friday’s clinic and LVMC spokeswoman Nora Wallace said the facility encourages people to make advance appointments at myturn.ca.gov.
People without appointments will be accommodated only as space and time permit, she noted.
Click here for more information on vaccination providers in Santa Barbara County.
— 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.