Edhat StaffBy the edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reports seven deaths and 535 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
All seven individuals were over 70 years of age with underlying health issues and four were associated with an outbreak at congregate facilities. Three resided in Santa Barbara, two in Santa Ynez, one in Goleta, and one in North County unincorporated.
There have been 214 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in Santa Barbara County since the virus arrived last March.
There are currently 3,256 active cases within the county, the highest its ever been.
Additionally, the hospitalization and ICU rates are the highest the county has ever experienced. Currently, there are 199 hospitalizations which includes 54 in the intensive care unit (ICU), 17 of those are ICU surge beds.
The county’s allotment of vaccines is based on population and is set by the state. It can only be expanded by Governor Newsom and may happen soon as the Presidential administration transitions.
The allotment does not include assisted living and nursing homes that receive a separate allocation from the Federal Government.
The Public Health is continuing to administer vaccines to people within the Phase 1A Tiers.
Phase 1A Tier 1 Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 1A Tier 2 Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 1A Tier 3 Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 1B Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 1C Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 2 & 3 Vaccine Distribution Target Populations and Delivery Dates
Phase 1B is expected to begin in early February or sooner. Registration is not available, but it will open shortly after the completion of Phase 1A. If you do qualify for Phase 1A and have not heard from the Public Health Department or your employer, you can reach out to vaccine@sbcphd.org.
More information can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org/covid-19-vaccine-information-2/
COVID is currently the leading cause of death, and has killed more than 10 times as many people as have died in automobile accidents. Why do you believe in or promote such blatant fallacies?
Because the freedom to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose; 350,000 people have died in the past year. I want you to name another cause of death that is that high, that also is something that can be caused involuntarily, i.e. you can die from it, even if you do everything right and/or abstain from doing something. That’s to say NOTHING about the callousness of valuing money over lives.
You see, that’s the problem with a society that venerates money over all else; money is a means, not an end. And when you worship money as the end, you end up willing to sacrifice ANYTHING to get it, up to and including your humanity. I’m starting to understand the saying “the pursuit of money is the root of all evil”. Valuing money over lives is evil, and its precisely what you seem to be so complacent and willing to accept. I hope you reconsider your views.
What are you talking about… COVID obviously isn’t the leading cause of death! What possibly makes you think that? (FYI: Over 630k people died in the US In 2020 due to cancer)
X01660, sorry, I’m not willing to force people into homelessness over a virus. If people didn’t have to pay their bills during this I might agree with you but that’s not the case here. Utility companies want their money and people need to earn money and pay those companies to keep the lights on, gas, insurance, phone etc. Not everyone has unlimited income. Maybe it’s you that could reconsider your views.
And COVID hasn’t been going full bore for a year. Try maybe looking at monthly rates, and extrapolate.
9:00 PM :
I don’t think you understand the severity of the pandemic.
Do you think over 388,000 deaths in the USA alone are faked?
International death totals are somehow being falsified?
Other countries are in on the conspiracy?
Too little thinking behind such comments.
None of your suggestions are going to happen, but feel free to pursue your bad ideas with your (I’m guessing very few) supporters. Best way to reopen is to get the vaccine to everyone that wants it. Until then, businesses are not going to be able to survive on 50% revenues they can get while the reasonable people isolate.
It’s the leading cause of death if you consider types of cancer separately- bronchus and lung cancer, breast cancer, etc. Different types of cancer are caused and treated differently just like the flu and covid19. If you lump all cancers together, then covid19 is the 2nd cause, and number 1 in unnecessary new deaths of people that mostly would not have died last year. Over 300,000 of them.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-united-states-this-week/
According to news reports, 40% of California Health Care workers are refusing the vaccine….WTF!
Why are we locked down waiting g on vaccine that 40% of the HC won’t take?
SBLocal, we’d be in a much better position all round right now if we focused our resources on protecting and isolating the at-risk from the beginning rather than grasping at straws and arbitrarily shutting down businesses.
@Voice, that doesn’t help the deaths and hospitalizations from people under 65 without any pre-existing conditions.
VOR – Once again, you have to do it ALL. We can’t lock down the elderly and at-risk and expect them to be safe if everyone else is out and about. My relative is in a nursing home and caught it from a nurse, in yep, you guessed….Orange Co., where the majority don’t “believe” in Covid. No, the only way to truly protect the elderly and at-risk, as you so charitably demand we lockdown, is for EVERYONE to take this seriously. That means shutting some businesses (like mine) completely down to avoid inevitable spread of this deadly virus. You can’t expect them to live in complete isolation. My relative was completely locked down in their home, but alas, the virus came in through those who didn’t take the precautions while out and about among the “free.”
Ooops, how many doses do you think are out there sitting around? Santa Clara County requested 100,000 doses, received 6,000. That’s why they haven’t moved beyond the 1st tier.
Sac, your looking at it wrong. Your relative in the nursing home clearly was isolated and protected. That doesn’t mean alone. For a nice bump in pay, a place to sleep and 3 squares a day would have enticed many qualified people to shelter in place with the nursing home residents. For those with under lying symptoms they should be isolated and protected to. Please understand if a household has an elderly or at risk member you are not isolating and protecting them if someone else is going out in the household. You both provided examples of NOT protecting and isolating the at risk population, and I’m saying we should.
Sorry, 1st sentence meant to read your relative WAS NOT….
SB surfer, if you take out all the deaths over 65 then covid is equivalent to a bad flu season , maybe about the same as 2018 when hostipals around the country were also overwhelmed, full, setting up tents in the parking lot, etc.
Spot on 420772
VOR – so, you’re saying we should be paying people to lockdown with the elderly and at-risk? OK, where does that money come from? Furthermore, how will they get their groceries and medical supplies? Delivery? Well, better be sure the delivery people are being safe. How much is that going to cost? Where is all this money coming from to pay millions of people to lock themselves in with the at-risk and elderly and have all supplies delivered via 100% clean and COVID-free services? Why should everyone else have to go through all this trouble and pay the ENORMOUS amount of money to achieve this, instead of all of us just biting the bullet and doing our part to slow this thing down?
VOR – instead of instantly upvoting yourself and downvoting me (it’s super obvious), how about a response to my question?