Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 38 cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Wednesday.
Both individuals who died were between the ages of 50 and 60 and lived in Santa Maria. One had underlying health conditions.
The county’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll rose to 443.
There were 156 cases still considered infectious, and there have been 33,774 confirmed cases in Santa Barbara County since the pandemic began.
There were only 19 patients hospitalized on Wednesday, including just two in intensive-care units. The last time the latter number was that low was exactly five months ago, on Nov. 14, 2020.
COVID patients were occupying only 2.6% of the county’s available, staffed ICU beds, according to Noozhawk’s data tracking.
The county’s ICU availability rate fell to 25% on Wednesday, down from 29.9% on Tuesday.
Of the new cases reported Wednesday, 14 were from Santa Barbara. The Lompoc Valley and the Santa Maria Valley each reported seven new cases, the Goleta Valley logged four, and the Santa Ynez Valley had two.
Four cases were pending geographic locations.
As of Tuesday, 22.2% of the county’s population was fully vaccinated, according to the county’s Community Data Dashboard.
Of the North County population, 17.5% was fully vaccinated. In the Mid-County region, 18.2% of the population was fully vaccinated, and 26.2% of South County residents were fully vaccinated.
— 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.