Santa Barbara County Public Health officials on Wednesday reported the COVID-19-related deaths of a Goleta resident and a Santa Maria resident, raising the county’s cumulative coronavirus death toll closer to 500.
One of the individuals who died was older than age 70 and one was between the ages of 50 and 69. Both people had underlying medical conditions, and neither death was associated with a congregate care facility, according to Public Health.
There have been 11 COVID-19 deaths reported during the past two weeks, and the coronavirus has taken the lives of 491 county residents since the pandemic began.
The Public Health Department reported an additional 117 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, and the number of cases still considered to be infectious rose to 608.
Of the new cases reported, 23 were among residents younger than age 17; 29 were among residents ages 18 to 29; 38 were among residents ages 30 to 49; 22 were among residents ages 50 to 69, and five were among people age 70 or older.
The Santa Maria Valley reported 58 new cases, the Lompoc Valley added 18, Santa Barbara tallied 14, the Goleta Valley logged eight, the Santa Ynez Valley reported five, the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area had three and Isla Vista added one. There were 10 cases pending geographic location.
The Public Health Department reports vaccination statuses for new positive cases on a weekly basis, with a lag of about two weeks. No real-time information about the vaccination statuses of infected people is available.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have been trending downward during the past two weeks, after a Sept. 1 peak of 82 people. The number of patients hospitalized for the virus fell from 61 on Tuesday to 54 on Wednesday, with intensive-care unit admissions dropping from 19 to 16 over those two days.
While the Public Health Department does not report vaccination statuses for COVID-19-related hospitalizations on a daily or weekly basis, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso on Tuesday said that at least 85% of the people hospitalized for the virus in August were unvaccinated.
— 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.