Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
The Public Health Department (PHD) stated the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Isla Vista will most likely prevent the county from moving on to the less restrictive orange tier.
There are currently 34 active COVID-19 cases within Isla Vista and officials are monitoring outbreaks at five fraternity and sorority houses, said Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso in a press conference Friday afternoon.
The initial outbreak reported last week appeared to show two separate clusters of positive cases within two fraternity and sorority houses. Unfortunately, increased testing showed the outbreak was not contained and several more cases were identified through contact tracing.
County Supervisor Gregg Hart cautioned that if these residents did not gather at parties and were more responsible, this situation could have been avoided entirely.
UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College are reportedly sending letters to their students revealing possible consequences such as suspension if public health guidelines are not followed. Hart urged Isla Vista property managers and landlords to also show stronger restrictions with their tenants.
“There’s so much at stake right now,” said Hart.
Santa Barbara County was very close to achieving the orange tier, although this latest outbreak has set us solidly in the red tier, said Do-Reynoso. The county will need to achieve orange tier numbers for two consecutive weeks before being allowed to step down. She also cautioned that an increase in more cases could set us back to the highest purple-colored “widespread” tier where more businesses would have to shut down.
The Public Health Department (PHD) is hosting another COVID-19 testing event on Thursday, October 29 through October 31 at the Isla Vista Theatre. UC Santa Barbara is also hosting their own testing events on campus and will report their findings to PHD and the general public, although official numbers may lag by a day or two, said Do-Reynoso.
Friday’s Numbers
As of last week, the county’s daily case rate fluctuated between 4.5 to 4.9 cases per 100,000 population with the testing positivity trending downward between 2.1 – 2.4%, said Do-Reynoso. In order to move into the orange tier, the county’s daily case rate will need to be less than 3.9.
There were 45 new cases reported on Friday, 12 of those located in Isla Vista and 18 in Santa Maria. The grand total is 9,760 with 129 currently active. There have been 120 deaths.
There are currently 17 hospitalizations including three in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Do-Reynoso stated that while it’s good the hospitalizations are going down, we all need to be mindful of the increase of COVID-19 cases because it may impact vulnerable populations She warned it’s not a good idea to throw open the gates based on one metric, it’s best to examine case rates and testing positivity.
More data can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org/status-reports/
Well, we can stop blaming Santa Maria now, and switch the ire to the irresponsible sorority and fraternity kids.
7.0 is the daily number of new cases per 100,000 people that lands you in the purple tier. Translated into daily numbers, (7.0/100,000)*456,373 = 32 new cases per day if you’re just looking day to day for the whole county. Today we had 45 new cases. The average new cases/day for the past 7 days is 29. If not quickly managed, the outbreak in IV will push our average well above 32 new cases per day and we’ll be right back in the purple tier. In another post I mentioned that I drove though IV last Saturday night, a day after the UCSB alert about the new cluster of cases. The students were shoulder to shoulder, maskless and in huge numbers. No attempt to slow the outbreak at all and Halloween is just around the corner.
Most likely they were barely sick and I didnt read any of them were hospitalized. Covid spreading around a college community isnt the problem. The problem is how the opening of our businesses, and more importantly our schools, are linked to the number of positive cases in a college fraternity. This isn’t science, it’s arbitrary rules made by politicians to generically apply to every community in California. Let our community decide what’s best for us, what’s safest for us, based on all the incatracies of our community.
Left to their own devices most people will take the path of least resistance and ignore the invisible threat. Look at Sturgis… these were “responsible adults” behaving no better than these kids.
This is so rude of the IV kids. Many of our businesses are going to get shut down if they cant contain it.
Not to mention our schools will have to close again. Maybe they should all go back home to their parents if they dont have school in person, why are they even here.
It doesn’t matter if they were barely sick and weren’t hospitalized. They tested positive and were reported, causing our daily case number to rise and that has serious consequences in terms of additional restrictions. I’m sick of the shutdown and was starting to enjoy life in the red tier and looking forward to the orange tier. Of course the rules are arbitrary, and as a researching scientist I’ve been quite frustrated by impulsive policies set forth by bureaucrats, many of which have been reversed or remain unenforced. I believe that people on both sides of the shutdown argument can appreciate how frustrating this all is.
There is an eviction moratorium… what are you asking/wanting the landlords to do again Mr Hart?
Health Director Reynoso and Supervisor Hart do something inact some type of punishment/ law – the honor system isn’t working as of last time I checked 6 months ago- YOU ARE OUR LEADERS -THIS IS OUR CITY!!!!!!!!- Cabrillo Blvd restarsunts look like Disneyland ( most all from LA) just got back from Santa Monica( most everyone has masks on and all servers ghve plastic face shields)
Well let’s not get ahead of ourselves… Santa Maria had 18 and the most cases virtually every day for the last 7 months… so… the problem is still north… IV certainly isn’t doing us any favors tho
Anti maskers are domestic terrorists.
Darwinism at its finest
There was a push this past week To test in IV, this outreach extended to students and the homeless community in IV (which is quite large in IV). It would be interesting to know the breakdown on positives…
And now our kids will be “remote learning” for the rest of the school year….FU IV! The governor himself has allowed in-person school, yet our districts are holding out for the orange tier. That’s not happening and now our kids are basically losing a year of education.
VOICE – I agree with you on this. Our schools need to open based on what the experts say is safe, not whatever color our whole county is in. It’s time to force the schools open, whatever the cost. I’m not sitting idly by any longer as my kids are cheated out of an education by a weak and lazy district. This is unacceptable.
remember this when you go to the ballot box
OOPS – I will for School Board! Democrats want to go back to school too, it’s those with the unions in their pockets that don’t.
All of this hysteria so that politicians can pursue their respective agendas. If you are a high risk person or an extremely paranoid person like GT, then take more caution with who you interact with simple as that. If you are not high risk, then go about your life and wear a mask when in crowded public spaces so that people who are high risk can at least go out. At this point in time if you are a high risk person and get CV, then that is on you. So a bunch of college kids hanging out with one another get CV, who cares, none got sick enough to be hospitalized and most probably did not know they had it.
I am certain that the Halloween festivities in IV will proceed without interruption. Youth is wasted on the young.
What a bunch of BS, our businesses and livelihoods should not be held hostage due to the USCB crowds…they don’t care about getting sick so we should such a small minority control our destiny. For sure they will continue to party through Halloween so we will continue to be locked down – CRAP!!!!
Yes, and why are they even here? I guess that all important SBCC surf class at Ledbetter is one of those lab classes that has to be in person???? I feel for what all age groups are losing during this time, but some groups will actually lose their lives and these students that chose to return should be well aware of the caveat that comes w the luxury of living here. They need to abide. Or go home.
BS IS RIGHT!!! When you divide that number into the almost 30,000 residents of IV it comes out to a pathetically low .001%- not quite enough to keep an entire county shutdown! Such a joke!!
Wonder what the numbers are at Westmont? They moved their students back in 2-3 weeks ago as well. A bunch of their students are in quarantine, have they released test results or going to hide that info to avoid our numbers going back up?
They’re here because they signed rental contracts last spring and have to pay rent. Why pay rent here but live elsewhere? That’s one reason.
And not knowing they had it, continued to spread it in the community, unless you somehow believe they never go shopping. Everyone is at risk, because we have no way of knowing who will get a severe reaction.
In France now they are seeing a big increase in cases in older people who have been isolating the whole time. They are getting it from their asymptomatic kids who come home to visit. 85000 new cases in this country yesterday! Going to be a long winter.
7:15, check your math. 12 cases out of 30,000 residents is a rate of 40 per 100K. IV and Santa Maria hotspots are skewing the numbers for the rest of the county. And remember, it doesn’t just stay among the residents, it has the capacity to spread among the rest of us. Shut IV and SM down? Unfortunately the rules are on a county basis. Hey IV, after all the social justice energy coming out of there, how about some social responsibility of your own?