[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 Jan. 23, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 163 COVID-19 cases. The totals for the previous week were 229 cases and one related death.
• According to the weekly summary on the county’s data dashboard for the week ending Jan. 27, the weekly average of reported PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases decreased 35.1% over the previous seven days.
• Santa Barbara County remains in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s low COVID-19 community level.
• As of Monday, there were 27 coronavirus-positive people hospitalized in the county, with two of them in intensive-care units.
• Authorities say California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end at the end of February but the Biden administration has extended the federal national emergency and public health emergency until May. Scroll down for more information.
• CalFresh Emergency Allotments — which gave households at least $95 more per month in CalFresh benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic — are ending. A final emergency allotment will be issued in March.

Federal, State COVID-19 Emergencies

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency have been extended until May 11. They were to have expired on March 1 and April 11, respectively.

“An abrupt end to the emergency declaration would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty through the health-care systems — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most important, for tens of millions of Americans,” the statement said.

California’s COVID-19 State of Emergency will end on Feb, 28, as Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in October.

Reminder: Free Testing Sites Closing

Two state-run test-to-treat sites — at Direct Relief in Goleta and the Santa Maria Fairpark — are closing Thursday.

Some of the free COVID-19 PCR testing locations still available include the testing trailer at 267 Camino del Remedio in Santa Barbara; the Health Care Center at 301 N. R St. in Lompoc; and the Santa Maria Health Care Center at 2115 Centerpointe Parkway.

Click here to find testing appointments and other information on the Public Health Department website.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Nearly 70% of Santa Barbara County residents have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 61% have also received a booster dose. About 23.4% of residents have received the bivalent booster.

Santa Barbara County’s vaccination rates are just slightly lower than the statewide rates — about 72.6% of California residents have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 23.8% of Californians have received the bivalent booster.

Santa Barbara County and California have the same rate of 61% for residents who have completed the primary series of the vaccine and received a booster dose.

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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