[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.
This is Giana Magnoli, managing editor of Noozhawk, with this week’s updates on COVID-19.
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 Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 855 new positive COVID-19 cases in the week ending Tuesday, which is 100 fewer than the previous week and 375 fewer than two weeks ago.
» The number of local hospital patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 increased to 39 people Tuesday. That includes those being treated for coronavirus-related issues and people who tested positive but were admitted for unrelated issues, according to public health officials.
» Santa Barbara’s Summer Solstice Celebration is back with its parade and festival at Alameda Park this weekend. Saturday’s noon parade has a new route (on Santa Barbara Street, from Ortega Street to Micheltorena Street at Alameda Park). Many other spring and summer community events are happening in 2022 after two years of pandemic cancellations.
» Public Health Department director Van Do-Reynoso is leaving in August for a job with CenCal Health. In an interview with Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton, she said she’s proud of her department’s pandemic response, which included dozens of public information briefings, mass vaccination clinics, and community outreach work. Do-Reynoso says heading the department during this time has been hard on her and her family “because of the long hours and the threats, and the unpleasant communications.”
Vaccines OK’d for Children Under 5
The Food & Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have approved two COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than age 5, marking a milestone in the pandemic’s vaccination effort.
The FDA last week gave emergency use authorization to pediatric doses of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children 6 months to 5 years old, and CDC advisers made the recommendation on Saturday.
Doses of these vaccines will arrive and become available to the community this week, said Jackie Ruiz of the county Public Health Department. About 27,900 children under the age of 5 are now eligible to be vaccinated locally.
Click here to read more information on the pediatric vaccines from the Public Health Department.
Families can check with their pediatricians and use the MyTurn portal to make vaccination appointments for children, and vaccination clinics open to the public will be listed on the Public Health Department website as well, Ruiz said.
“As of last Friday, we have at least 17 pediatric and primary care provider offices throughout our county that ordered pediatric vaccines and will be ready to provide vaccinations for the youngest in our community,” she said.
Pharmacies will also have the doses available.
Both COVID-19 vaccine regimens for young children require multiple shots of the vaccines, which are smaller doses than vaccines for adults.
The Moderna pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old is two shots (which are a quarter of the adult dose) administered four weeks apart.
The Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old is three shots (which are a tenth of the adult dose) with the first two shots administered three to eight weeks apart and a third shot given eight weeks or more after the second one.
COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and available for children 5 years old and older since November, and now the vaccines are available for everyone 6 months old and older.
Federal regulators also recently approved a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children, in addition to the Pfizer vaccine already available.
Dr. Dan Brennan, a Santa Barbara pediatrician, wrote a Noozhawk column about the newly available COVID-19 vaccines for young children and answered common questions from parents.
You can read the column online here.
Cases by Age Group, Vaccination Status
Noozhawk readers have asked for breakdowns of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status and by age group.
Since the county started tracking cases by vaccination status in November, people who are unvaccinated have been getting infected at a higher rate than those who are vaccinated and those who are vaccinated and boosted.
As of June 8, the county reported a daily case rate of 97.5 per 100,000 residents for unvaccinated people, a case rate of 23.7 per 100,000 residents for vaccinated and boosted people, and a case rate of 12.1 per 100,000 residents for vaccinated people.
The majority of COVID-19 positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been among people who are unvaccinated, according to the Public Health Department.
There were 450 coronavirus-related deaths in the county before the end of May 2021, when the vaccines became widely available for adults, and 244 more deaths since then, according to public health officials.
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.