Santa Barbara County Public Health officials on Saturday reported 110 new cases of COVID-19; however, only 33 were new cases counted within this week’s case count.
A backlog of cases from January and February have been reported in the daily totals for the past two days, making for a daily case count higher than 100 on Friday and Saturday. However, the old cases should not impact the county’s case rate used to determine tier status, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said.
There are 173 active cases throughout the county.
There have been 361 new cases reported during the past seven days, averaging 51.6 new cases per day. That is nearly a 40% increase from the week prior when the county was reporting an average of a little more than 37 new cases per day, according to Noozhawk’s data tracking.
There have been no new COVID-19-related deaths during the past four days, and the county’s cumulative death toll remained at 441.
There were 24 patients hospitalized by the virus, including four in intensive-care units.
Of Saturday’s new cases, 53 were from the Santa Maria Valley and 26 were from the Lompoc Valley. Santa Barbara reported 15 new cases, the Goleta Valley tallied seven and the Santa Ynez Valley logged five. Isla Vista reported one new case, and three cases were pending geographic location.
There have been 33,655 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.