[Editor’s note: Noozhawk’s weekly COVID-19 email newsletter is delivered to subscribers on Wednesdays. You can sign up here. We are republishing the newsletters on the website so more readers have access to them.]
Welcome to Noozhawk’s Weekly COVID-19 Briefing.
I’m Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz with the latest COVID-19 news in Santa Barbara County.
This newsletter is a way for Noozhawk readers to get important updates in one place.
It is emailed out every Wednesday, for free, to everyone who subscribes.
Here’s What We Know
- In the week ending Dec. 26, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 391 cases of COVID-19. The previous week, ending Dec. 19, had 438 COVID-19 cases and three related deaths.
- Santa Barbara County’s seven-day test positivity rate, as of Dec. 26, was 13.3% — higher than the statewide rate of 11.9% test positivity.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Santa Barbara County has high community transmission of COVID-19, but is in the CDC’s low COVID-19 community level, which is based on the community’s case rate, the number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, and the percent of staffed in-patient beds in use by patients with COVID-19.
- There were 51 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in the county on Dec. 30, with seven of them being treated in intensive-care units. That number includes patients who were hospitalized for other reasons and tested positive for COVID-19 while admitted.
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
According to Santa Barbara County’s COVID-19 data dashboard, nearly 70% of county residents have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 60.8% have also received booster doses and 21.8% have received the bivalent booster.
More than 95% of residents age 65 or older have completed the primary series of the vaccine and children under 5 remain the population with the lowest vaccination rate, with just 4.2% vaccinated as of early January.
The 50-to-64 age group follows the 65-and-older population for highest vaccination rate at 84% vaccinated, followed by the 18-to-49 age group at 72.3%.
About 32.1% of 5-to-11-year-olds in the county have received the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 63.2% of those ages 12 to 17 are vaccinated.
Click here for more information on receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in Santa Barbara County.
Got Questions?
Readers have sent us dozens of questions about pandemic-related issues. Please send yours to news@noozhawk.com and we’ll try to include them in future newsletters and Noozhawk Q&As.
Reader Resources
- Find a COVID-19 vaccine provider near you on the Vaccine Finder search function of https://www.vaccines.gov/search/. You can search for providers by location and by specific vaccine available (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson). You can also find providers on the county website, publichealthsbc.org/vaccine, or at myturn.ca.gov. Some facilities offer walk-ups as well as appointments.
- Text your ZIP code to GETVAX (438829) for a list of vaccine providers in English, or text your ZIP code to VACUNA (822862) for a list in Spanish.
- There are free COVID-19 testing facilities around the county.
- Find more local pandemic-related information on the Public Health Department website.
- Click here for Noozhawk’s complete Coronavirus Crisis coverage.
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