Santa Barbara County reported 67 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, and saw the lowest number of people hospitalized with the disease in more than a month.
There were 68 people being treated for COVID-19 in local hospitals, with 22 in intensive-care units, according to the county Public Health Department.
The latter number is also the lowest since July 14.
Of the new cases, 34 were in the Santa Maria Valley, eight in Isla Vista, seven in Goleta, six in Santa Barbara and five in Lompoc.
There were two in the unincorporated Goleta Valley and one in Santa Ynez, and geographic locations were pending on four cases.
Saturday’s daily positive-test rate, based on 2,098 tests, was 3 percent, while the seven-day rolling positive-test rate was 5 percent.
No new COVID-19 deaths were reported, keeping the county’s total at 77.
The county continues to put a disclaimer on the data it is releasing, noting that the state Department of Public Health still has not resolved all of its data-reporting problems, and that the county likely is underreporting its cases.
On Saturday night, the county Sheriff’s Department reported that 11 additional inmates at the County Jail near Santa Barbara have tested positive for COVID-19.
On Thursday, an inmate who had been housed adjacent to a previously infected person was tested and found to be positive, according to Raquel Zick, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
That prompted the Sheriff’s Department to test 130 additional inmates from surrounding housing areas, Zick said, and 10 more were found to be positive.
“The COVID-19-positive inmates will be medically monitored while contract tracing and testing continues,” she added.
This brings to 36 the total number of COVID-19-positive inmates who have been housed at the Main Jail.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.