Santa Barbara County reported 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The state also reported that the county had 23 coronavirus patients in the hospital, plus another three suspected cases in local hospitals.
Four COVID-19 patients are in intensive-care units, a number that has remained unchanged since Friday, the state said.
The total number of cases in the county increased to 8,862 on Saturday.
To date, there have been 107 COVID-19 fatalities in Santa Barbara County and three at the Lompoc Federal Prison Complex.
The latest statistics available from the state Public Health Department “do not represent true day-over-day change as these results include cases prior to yesterday,” according to the department’s website.
Although the county Public Health Department is required to report coronavirus cases to the state, it has stopped providing local updates on COVID-19 cases on weekends and holidays, according to the Surveillance Metrics Dashboard website.
California is reporting 16 more cases than the 43 new positive cases the county reported Friday.
The state website does not include information about age breakdowns, underlying health conditions and geographic locations of COVID-19 cases.
The county’s seven-day average as of Saturday was 31 cases per day, while the 14-day average was 33 cases per day, according to the state.
Under California’s framework for loosening and tightening restrictions on activities, the county is in the purple tier, so COVID-19 is considered “widespread” in the area.
The four color-coded system in California’s reopening scheme are based on testing positivity and a seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 with a seven-day lag, according to county officials.
Santa Barbara County must get its rate down to 32 cases or fewer per day to get to the next less-restrictive tier — the red tier that indicates there is “substantial” spread of the coronavirus.
County officials are expected to provide COVID-19 reports for the weekend on Monday afternoon.
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— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.