[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 Grace Kitayama.
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
- Santa Barbara County is reporting a daily average of 66 new COVID-19 cases as of last week. The number of PCR-confirmed cases decreased by 3.7% last week compared to the week before, according to the county Public Health Department’s Community Dashboard Data. This is an underreporting of cases in the county because at-home test results are generally not included.
- The transmission rates for COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County and in the rest of California are at high levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- On Dec. 23, the county reported 57 coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized in the county. This includes patients who were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and those who were admitted for other reasons and tested positive while there.
- Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Parade will return on Jan. 2 without a mask mandate this year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- There are free COVID-19 and flu testing sites in Santa Barbara County.
- Free at-home COVID-19 test kits are available by mail at https://special.usps.com/testkits. Each residential address can place one order, which includes four individual tests (two boxes with two test kits each).
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
According to state vaccination data, 69.8% of Santa Barbara County residents have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 60.7% of residents have also received a booster dose.
About 21.4% of county residents have received the bivalent booster for COVID-19.
Last week, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, announced $1.6 million in federal grants aimed at increasing vaccination rates in the county.
You can find local vaccination providers and make an appointment to get a free vaccine at https://www.vaccines.gov/search/.
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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