Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) reported three additional COVID-19 cases during a press conference on Wednesday bringing the total to 1,517.
All three cases were located within the community and not the outbreak at the Federal Prison in Lompoc.
Of the total 1,517 cases, 547 are within the community and approximately 80% of those have fully recovered. There are currently 28 hospitalizations with 10 in the intensive care unit (ICU). More details on each case can be found at publichealthsbc.org.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gregg Hart confirmed the attestation papers were sent to Governor Gavin Newsom’s office and PHD hopes to be approved within the next few days. Once approved, an amended Health Officer Order will be issued for some businesses to reopen or offer expanded services.
A new website was created to assist businesses in this preparation. It includes the modifications that will be needed, an industry-specific checklist, and a form that must be submitted to the PHD. Customers will know which businesses have properly followed the guidelines by an approval sticker that will be placed in their window.
Additionally, Hart confirmed the Governor has revised the state budget to make sure smaller counties receive federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Previously, Santa Barbara fell short from the requirements needed to receive federal funding but under the Governor’s amendment the county is projected to receive approximately $45 million to make up the budget deficit of lost revenue and COVID-19 expenses.
Cottage Health Numbesrs
Cottage Health is providing a detailed review of their current numbers. All COVID-19 related cases are reflected in the total numbers above. Below is a status update as of May 20, 2020.
- Cottage Health is caring for a total of 233 patients across all campuses.
- 179 are acute care patients; 194 acute care beds remain available.
- In surge planning, capacity is identified for adding 270 acute care beds.
- Of the 179 acute care patients, 11 patients are on ventilators. 66 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators).
- Of the 179 acute care patients, 6 are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms; 5 are confirmed COVID-19 positive.
- Of 6 patients in isolation, 3 patients are in critical care.
From May 11-17:
- 1,528 COVID-19 laboratory tests were ordered and collected by Cottage Health.
- Results: 21 positive, 1,457 negative, 50 pending.
- Results take up to 4 days.
SLO & Ventura Counties Approved for Accelerated Reopening
San Luis Obispo County is officially the 29th California county to meet the State’s criteria to move faster through Stage 2 of California’s Resilience Roadmap.
“Today, we take an important step forward under the State’s Resilience Roadmap,” said Wade Horton, County Administrative Officer and Emergency Services Director.
Now that San Luis Obispo County has met certain State criteria in containing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), in-store shopping and dining in restaurants can start with some modifications. (NOTE: Per the State’s COVID-19 Industry Guidance for Dine-In Restaurants, the State approval does not include the opening of bars, brew pubs, breweries or wineries, except for those with sit-down, dine-in meal service. Those without sit-down, dine-in meal service can continue
with curbside sales.)
The County of Ventura is the first and largest Southern California County to receive approval from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to move forward on an accelerated Stage 2 path to reopening. With this approval, Ventura County restaurants can now offer dine-in options and all retail businesses with exterior facing entrances are permitted to have customers inside of their stores.
“So happy for our County, businesses and employees. A long way to go, but this is a major milestone. The attestation reflects a validation of our collective community and County efforts to protect our community’s health and to support our local businesses,” said Mike Powers, County CEO. “COVID-19 has had devasting impacts on both community health and our economy. We want businesses to be able to reopen and we believe they can and will do so safely.”
Where is that big surge half of you were having convulsions about? It should have been here by now after several weekends of careless beaching and all those leper tourist. The only thing that makes any sense at this point is to continue opening more stores and to get back to normal.
The surge will come in the fall Einstein.
Most people on here were saying it was going to happen within weeks just a few weeks ago. Well, it didn’t.
If you believe the recent CNN article, our state had the second highest daily death total yesterday and Orange County had its worst day for deaths and new CV cases. Is that not surge enough for you? I am for opening up ASAP, but why deny reality?
People here have been doing a really good job of social distancing for quite some time, and these kinds of numbers are the payoff.
We are a couple months into this thing now: 11 deaths out of 1520 official cases. That’s 0.7%. Who knows how many unreported infections are out there, 5x or 10x the reported cases? If it’s 5x then the death rate drops to 0.1%. We haven’t overwhelmed the hospitals. Everyone did a great job. If you are fearful that this will be a death sentence for you, then maintain all the hygiene disciplines you’ve been doing. We need to get everyone else back to their normal way of living as soon as practical with proper hygienic measures.
Where are all the asymptomatic people? A lot of people on here were saying that more than 90% of people have it and don’t know. Yet all the testing show exactly the opposite, which is virtually no one has it. The numbers are a double-edge sword to people who live by them.
I’ve been trying to get this message out for weeks @ 12:54!!! We’ve been trying to cure/stop this one single risk while completely ignoring all the health related consequences.
12:54 – there are MILLIONS of doctors in the US. I’m sure they can find 600+ that will say whatever you ask them to say.
exactly @1:06. Since when has anyone listed to one doctor for something serious, they usually get 2nd, 3rd or more OPINIONS. But now we’re supposed to listen to just the one doctor a given network props up?
12 whole quacks per state. What a landslide of expert opinion.
Darn good math there, MAC. Yes, let’s trust and believe Fauci. That’s one whole expert for 50 states of you want to do some more math. And one doctor who has made poor and bad recommendations his entire career. Dare I say, he’s a “quack”? I wonder of one of those other “quacks” you mention might be your own doctor?
No one listened this time ………”More than 1,000 bipartisan former prosecutors have now signed their names on a petition maintaining that if Trump weren’t president of the United States, he would have been indicted on multiple charges for obstruction of justice.”
Shasta, And of those 11, at least 8 were reported to have had underlying medical conditions, 1 was even in hospice care but was reported as a Covid 19 death anyway.
TJohn, funny, since it was found there was no justice to obstruct in the first place.
Sam – if these 600+ “doctors” are all immunologists or otherwise experts in the field, then maybe I’ll give them “props,” but every doctor I know is STRONGLY against re-opening, despite losing $$. What’s more, Fauci isn’t just some doc the networks, are “propping up,” he’s been the DIRECTOR of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. I’ll take his word on this over 600 non-expert docs. And even more, it’s not as if Fauci is the only doc with his viewpoint, we’ve got millions of other “opinions” from around the world that concur with his. Try as you might, the MAJORITY of the medical personnel on planet Earth are against re-opening too quickly. That is an indisputable fact, it is gospel, law, whatever you want to call it, it’s REAL NEWS.
Those 12 “doctors” per state must be as ignorant of the law as some of the COVIDIOT posters here. Opening up is the purview of the states.
BIGONE – if you think Fauci is the only expert in all 50 states saying what he’s saying, well then, I really don’t know what to say. That’s like me saying there’s only 1 gas station in all of California. See? It’s ridiculous and WRONG.
I wonder how a non-infectious health condition manages to grow exponentially? Maybe a wee bit of hyperbole there? Or maybe those doctors are just incompetent.
In Santa Barbara we can see a doctor for non-emergency issues. Maybe not all doctors, and not for all reasons, but if you suspect something, you can be seen—or at least that is my experience. I do understand that routine visits are postponed, and yes, some ailments are caught at routine checkups. But I know of two people who are regularly monitored for specific issues, and they’ve been able to get bloodwork and see their doctors. How about other edhatters?
Calling people sheeple is rude and doesn’t bolster your argument.
AHCHOOO – Yep, I have a family member with cancer, had a serious procedure done right before all the lockdowns, and he has had no trouble going in for check ups, tests, bloodwork and more. If you’re really sick or have serious issues, you can still see a doctor. It’s not as bad as many would like to think.
Yes, SACJON. Fauci January 26: “The American people should not be worried or frightened by this. It’s a very, very low risk to the United States” and “their is no evidence this is transmissible from person to person.” February 29: “Right now, at this moment, there’s no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day by day basis.” March 15: Fauci says the virus has been shown to be “highly transmissible,” adding the emergence of this virus “exploded upon us”.
About the same time in late January, Fauci praises the Chinese government for “being quite transparent” and said he was “impressed” with officials’ cooperation. April 3: “That delay in transparency” from China, where the virus is believed to have originated, had an effect on our awareness of how bad the pandemic could become.” He’s similarly changed his opinions on both Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroqine. Sure, let’s believe everything this guy says. And maybe all those millions of other doctors you speak of might just have a wee bit of malpractice fear if they disagreed with him?
Big one: it is certainly possible because people were already dying of the virus 4 hours north of us. It looks like those Feb deaths were misattributed to pneumonia because testing for the virus was not possible then. I myself had similar symptoms in mid Feb. I’m curious, but not curious enough to shell out $250 for the antibody test.
BIGONE – Really? You think, because an expert changes his opinion about a novel, never before seen virus as it spreads and evolves, that it means he shouldn’t be trusted? You have heard the term “scientific discovery,” haven’t you? That means the science/medical community learns something new, like the behavior of a brand new virus. OBVIOUSLY, as the virus expands and spreads, they learn more and more and become more concerned. That’s how this all works. You don’t see a guy cough in Wuhan and say “holy crap, here comes a pandemic!” Now, if you only your expectations of super-human knowledge could extend to your president!
You ought to give the quotes in complete context and not cherry-pick parts of longer statements. For instance on Jan 26 Fauci said. “The American people should not be worried or frightened by this. It’s a very, very low risk to the United States, but it’s something we, as public health officials, need to take very seriously.
THOMAS – that’s their “logic.” Grab a juicy bit of a quote, that without any context, sounds like it supports their unfoundable narrative, and it’s the “truth.” Thanks for providing the rest of that very valuable quote. Steve Bannon is a pro at this. “But Bannon omits an important detail: Both times, Fauci added that the situation could change.” ——- https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/29/steve-bannon/did-fauci-tell-us-not-worry-about-coronavirus/
Fauci has been contradicting himself the entire time with COVID-19, not just when it was “novel”, just like he did with AIDS and SARS if you care to do the research. Yes, hindsight is great, even when we follow the words of an “expert.”
The vast majority of deaths are associated with having another preexisting medical condition. This isn’t an indiscriminate killer like the Spanish Flu was. Even the Lompoc prison only has two deaths so far out of 1000 infected. A lot of people seem to still have the fear factor 4% death rate for all which was implanted in our heads by WHO early on. We were anticipating scores if not hundreds dead by now in SB county and thankfully we only got 11. RIP, and condolences to their family and friends.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8320761/Woodstock-occurred-Hong-Kong-flu-pandemic-killed-1-million-people-worldwide-100-000-Americans.html
Almost a million doctors in the US, should we really make decisions on what 600 of them are recommending? That is less than 0.1% of them, maybe we should wait until the percent at least rises above the percent of Covid deaths in the general population if the current rates hold?
So does anyone wonder, like me, if we just went through the 2nd wave of this virus? So many people now are thinking they had this in December and January including several friends of mine and family – and they way they describe symptoms it seems at least possible. Is there any way to know? If this is the 2nd wave then what?
A newly published study out of the University of Southern California estimates that 4.65% of LA county residents have already had the coronavirus based on an antibody study conducted earlier. This would be 12.5x the number of official positive tests. If SB county is similar, then a lot of us have already had the virus with such mild symptoms that we didn’t think we needed to go to the doctor. ** https://news.usc.edu/170565/covid-19-antibody-study-coronavirus-infections-los-angeles-county/
I’m eager to have access to a highly accurate antibody test. So far the antibody tests are either not specific enough (can’t reliably determine between different types of coronavirus), or give too many false positives or false negatives. But it sure would be nice to find out I’d already had this thing.
If 5% of SB County has already had the virus like LA County (and Santa Clara Co), then about 25,000 of us have already had it with most of unaware we were infected.
Fear is a powerful weapon, Shasta. Most of the Sheeple still are in hiding, especially when they spy people through their windows who are not wearing masks.
Edhat takes off my REAL statistical numbers… 325 million U.S. Population – Round off to 100,000 deaths that equals 0.03% of the population has died of the CV…
COAST – yes, because we all made huge sacrifices to slow the spread to our fellow humans. It’s how a civilized society works! Success! Glad you finally see that.
I think it’s also important to remember that virtually all of the deaths have been nursing home patients and individuals with health conditions. In fact, around half the deaths, and the majority in some states, have been in nursing homes. Had more been done to protect nursing home patients early on, a substantial portion of the fatalities in the US could have been prevented. Most CV cases are asymptomatic and the CV has minimal impact on healthy people with a few extremely rare exceptions. If you are healthy you are more far more likely to die from pretty much any common cause of death such, as a car accident, than the CV.
It’s like there is a time machine in this thread deleting posts. The first death in the US by Coronavirus is a Santa Clara woman on Feb 6. No tests were available then, but they later tested her blood taken at the autopsy and found it positive for the virus. That means the virus was already in circulation in CA in January. This is from a Washington Post article dated 4/22/2020.
@Coast – if you look at it that way, the #1 cause of death in the USA (heart disease) only kills 0.19% of the population in an entire year. Percentages can be decieving.
Shasta, I’ve posted here before a few times that I contracted the virus and experienced headache, high fever, and dry cough around the 25th of January. My wife then became sick with the same symptoms about a week later, including loss of smell and taste. It was like a strange flu that lasted about 4-5 days and then we both were back to normal and healthy except for that dang lingering cough that took about three weeks to fully disappear. We had no idea at the time what it was, other than a type of flu. I got a message from a doctor friend of mine a couple of days ago who I hadn’t spoken to since early February. He said he got it in early February and was positively diagnosed. There is no doubt this virus was probably here by late December, if not sooner.
SB Dude, the CDC claims 647,000 deaths a year in the U.S. from heart disease and that’s about 21%, so close to the 19% you mention. However, to say “only kills” that amount is far more than what COVID-19 has done so far unless we reach that 647k number by next January, hardly likely, even counting deaths “From Covid” vs. “With Covid.”
A letter with 600 medical doctor’s signatures nationally was sent to Trump yesterday urging him to stop all the lockdowns and restrictions because fatality rates from other diseases and issues will grow exponentially since they haven’t been able to treat or screen patients for other health issues. For those who keep saying “we have to listen to the experts and science”, you might want to consider what those 600+ doctors are saying.
How are you defining a wave? To me the wave started in January, recently crested, and we are hopefully now declining. Next crest is predicted to be in fall when more kids go back to school. Or we get a mutation.