Santa Barbara County is expected to advance into the less-restrictive red tier Tuesday, Public Health Department officials said at Friday’s virtual COVID-19 press conference.
“This will bring us new opportunities for business and entertainment venues to open up,” county Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg said of moving into the second-most-restrictive category. “It also presents us with a challenge to continue to be safe and not fall back into another virus surge.”
Indoor operations of fitness centers and gyms, restaurants, movie theaters, aquariums, museums and zoos are allowed with modifications in the red tier, according to the state COVID-19 reopening framework, the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
In the red tier, Santa Barbara County wineries, breweries and distilleries will only be allowed to operate outdoors with modifications outlined in the classification system, including limited hours for service and a 90-minute time limit for guests, among others.
All 58 counties fall under California’s color-coded tier system, which is a four-tier classification framework. Santa Barbara County is in the “widespread” purple tier, the most-restrictive level.
Ansorg’s remarks during the press conference Friday, which marked the one-year anniversary of the county’s first COVID-19 press conference, came shortly after state officials announced that California reached 2 million vaccination doses in the vaccine equity metric.
Two million vaccine doses were administered to the most hard-hit communities, representing about 25% of eligible people in California, according to state officials.
As a result, the Blueprint for a Safer Economy tiers have been updated to allow “for somewhat higher case rates in the substantial (red) tier,” the state said.
The criteria for the reopening tiers will shift when 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to people living in about 400 ZIP codes in the vaccine equity quartile.
The purple tier criteria for case rates will shift from more than seven new cases per day per 100,000 people to more than 10 new COVID-19 cases per day, county Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said.
The red tier case rate criteria will be widened to four to 10 daily cases per 100,000 people, and the orange and yellow tiers will remain the same, Do-Reynoso said.
The county must be in a tier for three consecutive weeks before officially advancing to the red tier, Do-Reynoso said.
The latest tier assignment shows Santa Barbara County at an adjusted rate of 9.7 cases per day, so the county can advance to the red tier now that the state reached the 2 million vaccine doses threshold.
To advance to the less-restrictive red tier, the county must meet the test positivity rate for that tier for two consecutive weeks. Santa Barbara County has a 3.6% positivity rate.
The county’s COVID-19 metrics have “substantially decreased,” including the number of active cases, daily new cases, COVID-19 testing positivity, case rate, coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized and death rate, Do-Reynoso said.
“The winter surge in cases is now over,” Do-Reynoso said Friday.
The county has reported receiving more than 117,700 COVID-19 vaccine doses to date, Do-Reynoso said, adding that as of Friday, the county had administered more than 80% of its allocated doses to date. She noted that vaccination data have a three-day lag.
“The remaining doses are slated for clinics happening in the next few days,” Do-Reynoso said Friday.
Santa Barbara County is vaccinating people age 65 or older, along with agriculture and food workers, educators and child care workers, emergency services workers, residents 75 years old or older, emergency medical personnel and health care workers.
Beginning Monday, individuals ages 16 to 64 who are at high-risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 will be eligible to receive the vaccine in the county. The health conditions stated in the county guidelines include cancer, chronic kidney disease stage four or more, chronic pulmonary disease, Down syndrome, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, heart conditions, severe obesity and type 2 diabetes, among others.
“Anytime eligibility opens, vaccine supplies still are limited initially and more will become available in the weeks to come,” Do-Reynoso said. “Please be patient as we open up vaccine opportunities to the remaining categories in our community.”
According to Ansorg, Santa Barbara County to date has about 10% of its population age 18 or older who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“And give or take, 15% have received at least one dose, which already provides good protection against severe COVID and death,” Ansorg said.
The county is home to more than 446,000 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau population estimate.
The next two to three weeks are expected to be “challenging” because the number of weekly vaccine supply available to Santa Barbara County will likely not increase, while more residents will become eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, Ansorg said.
“By April, we should see a dramatic increase in available vaccines, and hopefully by May, everybody who wants a vaccine will be able to get it,” Ansorg said.
County Moves Mobile COVID-19 Testing Unit to Santa Barbara
To expand COVID-19 testing access for residents, the Public Health Department will move the mobile COVID-19 testing unit to Santa Barbara’s East Beach beginning Monday.
The unit will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday in the waterfront parking lot at 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara.
Appointments are required, and testing is free and available to all community members.
Appointments can be made online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888.634.1123.
The Public Health Department website — https://publichealthsbc.org/testing/ — has more information on local testing options. Residents can also call 2-1-1 to get assistance registering for a test appointment.
“Getting tested means detecting where the virus is spreading and putting a stop to it. We know our community is eager to move forward, and testing is a key tool to make this happen. Decreasing our case rate will allow our community to move more quickly through the tiers and begin reopening more business sectors and schools,” Do-Reynoso said in a statement. “The mobile testing site is a great way for community members to easily access COVID-19 testing while enjoying a great view.”
Santa Barbara County’s New COVID-19 Status Report
Meanwhile, county Public health officials on Friday reported 54 new positive COVID-19 cases, and two additional North County residents have died of COVID-19.
There have been a total of 32,573 confirmed positive cases in the county, and the COVID-19 death toll now stands at 428, according to the COVID-19 community data dashboard.
Both residents who died were in the 70-plus age group and had underlying medical conditions, according to Public Health. The individuals who died resided in Lompoc and Santa Maria. The deaths were not associated with an outbreak at a congregate care site, according to the county.
There were 43 confirmed COVID-19 patients being treated in Santa Barbara County-area hospitals. Of those patients, 15 were in intensive-care units.
The county was operating at more than 31% ICU availability as of Friday, according to Public Health.
Of Friday’s new positive cases, Santa Maria had 26, and four each were reported in Santa Barbara and Orcutt. Three each were reported in the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria area, Goleta, Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc and in the unincorporated areas of North County. The unincorporated area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota had two new cases, and Isla Vista had one. Geographic locations had not been released for two new cases.
There were about 255 community cases still considered infectious throughout the county, according to Public Health.
It’s almost the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Santa Barbara County. The county’s first COVID-19 case was reported March 15, 2020, and the first local death announced in April.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department on Friday reported that the number of active COVID-19 cases among inmates in the Main Jail dropped to zero.
“All of the COVID-19 cases at the Main Jail have been cleared, and there are currently no COVID-19 positive inmates being monitored,” Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Raquel Zick said.
As of Friday, more than 210 inmates at the Main Jail had tested positive for COVID-19, including a Santa Maria inmate who died after landing in the hospital for COVID-19 complications while in custody at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
In addition, one sheriff’s custody deputy tested positive for COVID-19, Zick said Friday.
To date, 116 sheriff’s employees have tested positive for COVID-19, with 113 of those recovered and returned to work, Zick said.
More Information on COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments
Registration information for county clinics and links to pharmacy and hospital vaccination sites is here: https://publichealthsbc.org/covid-19-vaccine-appointment-registration/.
Sign up for the county newsletter on vaccination efforts, including announcements of available appointments, here: https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/1937902/1753150/.
Call 2-1-1 and select option 4 to reach the county call center for vaccine-related questions and help registering for an appointment if you are eligible. The call center can be reached at 800.400.1572 for out-of-area numbers and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
The 2-1-1 call center is staffed with people who can answer questions about COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County, according to the Public Health Department.
The State of California has released lists of specific jobs that qualify for each vaccination priority group, but not for the education and child care sector. View the lists here: https://covid19.ca.gov/essential-workforce/.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department has additional vaccine-related information on its COVID-19 page here: https://publichealthsbc.org.
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.
