[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 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’s emailed out every Wednesday, for free, to everyone who subscribes.

Here’s What We Know

  • According to weekly summaries for Santa Barbara County’s COVID-19 Dashboard Data, the number of new reported cases has decreased by 16.7% in the week ending Feb. 2. This is likely an underreporting because rapid at-home COVID-19 tests are often not reported to the county. To report your at-home COVID-19 test result, visit this link: https://makemytestcount.org.
  • In the week ending Feb. 2, the county Public Health Department reported two coronavirus-related deaths of local residents.
  • Transmission rates in the county are no longer “high” but now in the “substantial” range, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The test positivity rate has dropped to 5.8%, a sign of decreasing community spread of the coronavirus. The rate has been decreasing since late December.
  • As of Monday, there were 21 coronavirus-positive patients in local hospitals with no patients in intensive-care units. Eleven people were hospitalized on the South Coast and 10 in the North County.

Vaccine Mandates for Public School Students

The COVID-19 vaccination will no longer be added to the list of vaccinations students are required to have to attend California public schools in-person, California Department of Public Health officials told EdSource.

This decision contradicts Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021 announcement that California would be the first state to require the COVID-19 vaccine in public schools.

California is ending its COVID-19 state of emergency on Feb. 28.

The state Department of Public Health has not made any official announcements about the decision as of this week.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

According to the state vaccine tracker, 69.9% of Santa Barbara County residents — 317,217 people — have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Of those who are eligible, 23.7% — 74,776 people — have received the bivalent booster.

Statewide, 72.6% of California residents have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine and 24.1% of Californians have received the bivalent booster.

Got Questions?

Readers have sent us dozens of questions about coronavirus 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

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Grace Kitayama is a Noozhawk staff writer.