[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.]

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 March 20, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 88 COVID-19 cases and one related death. The previous week had 153 cases and no related deaths reported.
• According to the county’s data dashboard, the average of PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases for the week ending Thursday increased by 4.3% compared to the previous week. This is an underreporting of cases in the county as most people are testing with rapid antigen home tests that often are not reported to to public health officials..
• Santa Barbara County remains in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s low COVID-19 community level.
• As of Monday, 11 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized in the county, two of them in intensive-care units.

To Our Readers

Noozhawk is ending its weekly COVID-19 newsletter next week, with the last edition going out on April 5.

Our reporters will continue to monitor public health guidance and local transmission of the coronavirus for news stories.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Santa Barbara County providers have administered a total of 960,451 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about 70.1% of county residents have completed the primary series of the vaccine, according to the county’s data dashboard.

Just over 60% of county residents have also received a booster dose, and 24.8% of county residents have received the bivalent booster.

Statewide, more than 88 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, and the county’s vaccine rates are just slightly lower than those statewide, with 72.8% of Californians having completed the primary series of the vaccine, 61.3% of California residents also receiving a booster dose, and 25.2% of Californians having received a bivalent 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 and the county’s COVID-19 recovery page, with resources for business reopening, rental assistance, food assistance and more.
• Click here for Noozhawk’s complete Coronavirus Crisis coverage.

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