[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
- According to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, for the week ending Friday, the weekly average of reported PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 65.5% over the previous seven days.
- As of Nov. 29, the seven-day test positivity rate for Santa Barbara County was 9.2%, an increasing number since mid-November.
- Even with the increase in virus transmission, the county remains in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s low COVID-19 community level.
- On Monday, the county reported 47 coronavirus-positive patients in local hospitals, including nine in intensive-care units. This includes people who are hospitalized for unrelated issues and test positive when admitted, and people who are admitted for coronavirus-related reasons. The number has doubled in the past two weeks.
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
Almost 70% of Santa Barbara County residents have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and about 59% of residents have received a booster dose.
The county’s vaccination rates are slightly lower than the statewide rates, with 72.4% of Californians having completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 60.3% of statewide residents receiving a booster shot.
The county’s rate of residents who received the bivalent booster, 18.5%, is slightly higher than California’s rate of 18.3%.
As of Dec. 1, Santa Barbara County providers have administered a total of 933,037 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
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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