Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 16 new COVID-19 cases and no additional related deaths on Saturday.
There were eight COVID-19 patients in local hospitals, compared with nine on Friday, according to the county Public Health Department.
One patient was in an intensive-care unit, a number that was unchanged from the previous day.
The countywide cumulative total stood at 34,306 COVID-19 cases, the online status report released Saturday showed.
The county’s cumulative death toll remained at 450 people who died of COVID-19.
The county’s newest cases included six in the Lompoc Valley, five in the Santa Maria Valley, two in Santa Barbara and one in the Santa Ynez Valley.
There were two cases still pending geographic location.
About 99 residents countywide were considered still infectious with COVID-19 as of Saturday, according to the Public Health Department.
The county’s seven-day rolling test positivity rate was at 1.6% and the health equity metric at 1.9%, which will meet criteria for the least-restrictive yellow tier threshold, the fourth level under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy restrictions.
The county’s adjusted case rate stood at 4.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents, which will satisfy the criteria for the orange tier.
Santa Barbara County is currently in the orange tier.
The State of California updates tier assignments for its 58 counties each Tuesday.
The county’s first coronavirus case was reported in March 2020 and the first local death in April last year.
Click here for a list of COVID-19 vaccine providers in Santa Barbara County.
Click here to read stories in Noozhawk’s Coronavirus Crisis section.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
