Novel coronavirus cases in Santa Barbara County continue to decline as Public Health officials reported 78 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and one additional death related to the virus. 

Mirroring a statewide trend, the county is showing declining numbers of new cases as it approaches the end of its indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people on Wednesday.

In the week ending Tuesday, 1,228 cases were reported, which is a 54.2% decrease from the previous week’s total of 2,680 COVID-19 cases.

The death reported Tuesday was of an individual age 70 or older from the Santa Ynez Valley who did not have underlying health conditions. The death was not associated with a congregate care site.

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department has reported a total of 637 COVID-19-related deaths and 83,095 cases.

According to the Community Data Dashboard, 82 COVID-19-positive individuals were hospitalized throughout the county Tuesday, with 14 of these patients being treated in intensive-care units.

Of the 78 COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, 28 were in the Santa Maria Valley and 17 cases were in the Lompoc Valley.

The Santa Barbara area reported nine new COVID-19 cases and the Santa Ynez Valley reported five new cases.

Both the Goleta Valley and the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area reported four new cases each and there were 11 cases pending geographic location Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, 1,111 COVID-19 cases are currently considered still infectious or active, the Santa Barbara Public Health Department said. 

— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.