Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 1,421 new COVID-19 cases and one virus-related death on Friday.
The person who died was older than 70 years old, had underlying medical conditions and resided in Orcutt. The death was associated with a congregate care site, according to Public Health.
The county’s cumulative death toll rose to 585.
With the addition of Friday’s new cases, Santa Maria surpassed 20,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases, with a total of 20,325.
The Santa Maria Valley — which includes Orcutt and the unincorporated areas of North County — reported 510 new cases, the Santa Barbara area added 266 and the Goleta Valley tallied 217. There were 173 new cases reported in the Lompoc Valley, 108 new cases in Isla Vista, 58 cases from the Santa Ynez Valley, 43 cases from the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area and seven at the Lompoc Federal Prison.
There were 39 cases still pending geographic location, and 6,296 cases countywide were still considered infectious as of Friday.
Roughly 21% of the county’s total number of coronavirus cases were reported in the past two weeks.
There were 149 coronavirus patients being treated in county hospitals on Friday, including 15 in intensive-care units.
There were six ICU surge beds in use as of Friday, and 12 out of 22 ventilators in the county were being used for coronavirus patients, according to the county’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
The average daily number of coronavirus patients for the week ending Friday increased by nearly 48% compared with the week prior, and the average daily number of COVID-19 ICU admissions increased by roughly 32%, according to data tracking done by Noozhawk.
— 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.
