Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
County Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansor. has issued Health Officer Order No. 2020-10.1 ordering individuals in the County of Santa Barbara to wear face coverings when in high-risk situations that may contribute to the spread of COVID-19.
This Order will be effective starting 5:00 p.m. on Thursday continuing until 5:00 p.m. on August 20, 2020 or until it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by the County of Santa Barbara Health Officer.
The intent of this Order is to provide clarity on when face coverings should be worn and to be aligned with the California Department of Public Health’s mandated guidelines.
The new order stipulates the following:
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This Order does not apply to persons younger than two years old.
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Masks with one-way valves cannot be used to comply with this Order. These types of masks permit respiratory droplets to easily escape which places others at risk.
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All individuals, unless an exception applies, must wear a face covering: a)When inside of or in line to enter any and all businesses b) When using public transportation, a private car service, or a ride-sharing vehicle. Drivers must wear a face covering while driving or operating vehicles regardless of whether a member of the public is in the vehicle. c)All businesses must require employees, contractors, owners, and volunteers to wear a face covering at the workplace and at off-site work locations.
Exceptions, guidelines, and information relative to this order can be found in the full Health officer Order located here.
The Numbers
The Public Health Department (PHD) added 162 new COVID-19 cases bringing the county’s total to 5,444.
Active cases are now 361 as the health department clarified the confusion over active cases.
“Active cases are identified cases that are still considered infectious. Not all new cases are considered active due in part to the delays our team has seen in receiving some lab results,” PHD said on Twitter.
There are currently 86 hospitalizations overall including 27 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Cottage Health Specific Numbers
Below is a status update as of July 23, 2020.
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Cottage Health is caring for a total of 276 patients across all campuses.
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204 are acute care patients; 169 acute care beds remain available.
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In surge planning, capacity is identified for adding 270 acute care beds.
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Of the 204 acute care patients, 15 patients are on ventilators. 75 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators).
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Of the 204 acute care patients, 29 are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms; 27 are confirmed COVID-19 positive.
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Of the 29 patients in isolation, 8 patients are in critical care.
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From July 6-12:
3,811 COVID-19 laboratory tests were collected by Cottage Health.
Results: 243 positive, 3,567 negative, 1 pending -
From July 12-19:
4,269 COVID-19 laboratory tests were collected by Cottage Health.
Results: 194 positive, 2,635 negative, 1,440 pending
If local public health officials just do what the state tells them to do, why are we even paying them here locally? Cut them out as mere non-essential middlemen. If you cannot customize public health recommendations to each part of your loca jurisdiction, and Sacramento issues one size fits all edicts that fit no one, it is past time to eliminate this useless local position.
High risk situations like the one the City created on that blocked off stretch of State Street? Our very own little hotzone in south county.
Agreed.
Public Health departments, nation-wide, work day in and day out, year after year. You only hear about their work when things get bad. They’re involved in community and environmental health, from homeless people to restaurant standards. They monitor disease reports. They implement and monitor vaccination programs, including yearly influenza vaccines and monitoring. They are our first line of defense against food-borne illness outbreaks. Their labs test wildlife for rabies. I’m sure there’s more. You shouldn’t know they’re around! We only know when things go bad.
Here’s an example of what they do or may monitor: https://www.countyofsb.org/phd/dcp/communicable-diseases.sbc //////////////////////
https://www.countyofsb.org/phd/dcp/provideralerts.sbc
Nope, not State Street, Sorry, the hot zone is Santa Maria. All the numbers are available for all the cities each time the new numbers are released if you choose to inform yourself.
Our health department is doing a great job. The break down the numbers daily as well as hospitalizations and ICU bed numbers. For thoes that honor numbers and facts, there are graphs that show trends daily. For our County, each city is broken down as to where the new cases are coming from.
For example for 7/23 the number of cases in Santa Barbara were 11 and in Santa Maria were 93.
Because Santa Maria is in Santa Barbara County, we are all batched together with the total number of new cases for reporting.
This team is really earning their money unlike some in the Public Employees Union sector.
I don’t think there’s enough awareness about the “one-way valve masks” that public health is saying are prohibited due to their ineffectiveness. I cringe when I see restaurant workers wearing these. I hope public health makes a greater effort to reach out to restaurants to ban these masks as they defeat the purpose of face coverings.
I would hardly call a local public health officer a “non-essential middleman.” They make sure medical facilities in the area are adequate and safe. During a natural disaster they would be tasked with setting up triage and making sure we have medical supplies. The president said this was the biggest struggle since WW2 yet we have cities and counties doing all the fighting with a totally pathetic federal response.
You think this coulda been better written? b) When using public transportation, a private car service, or a ride-sharing vehicle. Drivers (of public transportation?) must wear a face covering while driving or operating vehicles regardless of whether a member of the public is in the vehicle.
Seems like “b” references the general public then tangents to drivers of ride sharing, public transport, or private car service….Easily could be misunderstood that all drivers must wear face coverings.
And regarding the local health officer doing a stellar job, it’s not that long ago the SB Public Health Officer withheld information about children in public schools in Santa Maria having drug resistant TB. And that health info was withheld to prevent discrimination agains hispanic/latino children.
Somehow they decided an actual health threat was less important than social stigma – oh is that what they’ve also done with the protesting following George Floyd’s tragic death, more important to protest than reduce the chance of spreading COVID?
It is these types of positions that cause some in the public to take a jaded view of our public health pronouncements. You’ve gotta be alive to correct social stigma, so lets focus on actual physical threats first, then move to the social agenda.
It is all becoming politicized. Actual real threats to your health should take priority over social consciousness.