[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 managing editor Giana Magnoli 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
» The number of active coronavirus cases is increasing in Santa Barbara County and the rest of California, according to public health data.
» Coronavirus-positive hospitalizations remain low locally and statewide.
» In the week ending April 10, unvaccinated Californians were 5.7 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 8.6 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated and received a booster dose, according to the California Department of Public Health. As of April 3, the unvaccinated were 10.9 times as likely to die from COVID-19 as people who were fully vaccinated and received their booster dose, the department said.
Booster Guidance
About 70% of Santa Barbara County residents are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 (about 311,000 people) and 55.5% of them have also received at least one booster shot, according to federal tracking.
That booster rate jumps to 75.8% for fully vaccinated people over the age of 65.
COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are available for people 12 and older, and the California Department of Public Health has released recommendations on booster shot timing for the general public and for immunocompromised people.
Do At-Home COVID-19 Tests Expire?
The at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests, also called self tests, do have expiration dates on the boxes, but the Food & Drug Administration has been extending those dates.
The FDA has specific expiration date extensions for each brand of test kit on its website and, in March, the California Department of Public Health issued an indefinite extension of expiration dates for all home test kits, Santa Barbara County officials said.
The box of iHealth tests pictured above, which was received through the federal government’s free mail test kit program (order them at https://special.usps.com/testkits) have a July 7 expiration date listed but that has been extended to at least October, according to the FDA.
There are some local sites that hand out the tests for free, and there are also ways to purchase tests, the cost of which can be reimbursed through your health insurance.
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 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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— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.