More than half of the people confirmed to have the COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County have now recovered, according to the county Public Health Department.
Of the 451 cases as of Thursday, 257 have fully recovered, Public Health officials said in their daily update.
Another 138 people are recovering at home, and 39 are being treated in local hospitals, including 13 in intensive care units. Updates are pending for 12 patients.
The rate of hospitalization in the county from COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, has remained stable for more than two weeks, and the number of ICU admissions has slowly declined.
Five coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the county thus far.
Breaking from the long-standing trend, there were more new confirmed cases Thursday on the county’s South Coast than in the North County. (To date, more than 75 percent of the county’s COVID-19 cases have been in the North County.)
Of the 11 new cases, five were reported in Santa Barbara and one in the unincorporated area of the Goleta Valley. Four were reported in the Lompoc Valley, including two from the large outbreak at the Lompoc federal prison complex. Details were pending on one case.
The age distribution of the latest cases included three in the 18-29 group, three in the 30-49 group, two in the 50-69 group and one in the 70-plus group.
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— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.