AnonymousSanta Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) reports an additional six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county today. The total number of confirmed cases is 514 and 401 have fully recovered.
Although most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, PHD recommends additional measures to prevent exposure among vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions (such as diabetes, cancer, immunodeficiency, asthma, COPD and others). PHD recommends that residents, especially those who are vulnerable:
- Stay home except for essential tasks. Ensure you have a two-week supply of medication on hand.
- When engaging in essential tasks away from home, remain 6 feet away from others and wear a facial covering.
- Wash your hands with soap and water regularly.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Keep surfaces clean by wiping them down with a household disinfectant.
Information for the 6 new confirmed cases can be found below.
Ages of new confirmed cases reported:
| 0-17 | 0 |
| 18-29 | 1 |
| 30-49 | 2 |
| 50-69 | 1 |
| 70+ | 2 |
| Pending | 0 |
Locations of new cases reported:
| South County Unincorporated Area includes communities of Montecito, Summerland and the City of Carpinteria | 0 |
| City of Santa Barbara and the unincorporated area of Mission Canyon | 0 |
| City of Goleta | 0 |
| Community of Isla Vista | 0 |
| Unincorporated Area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota | 0 |
| Santa Ynez Valley including the Cities of Solvang & Buellton, and the communities of Santa Ynez, Los Alamos, Los Olivos and Ballard | 0 |
| City of Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village | 0 |
| City of Santa Maria | 6 |
| Community of Orcutt | 0 |
| Unincorporated Areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the City of Guadalupe | 0 |
| Location Pending | 0 |
Fifty-one (51) people are recovering at home, Forty-two (42) are recovering in a hospital, seventeen (17) of whom are in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and twelve (12) are pending an update. Eight (8) deaths have been reported.
Please visit Santa Barbara County’s coronavirus web page for other preparedness resources and updates at https://publichealthsbc.org/.
For general questions about COVID-19 and precautions currently recommended by Santa Barbara County Public Health, residents may call the 2-1-1 Call Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by dialing 2-1-1 if calling from within the county; or (800) 400-1572 if calling from outside the area.
Saturday Update: 508 COVID-19 Cases
Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) reports an additional four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county today. The total number of confirmed cases is 508 and 397 have fully recovered. Today’s total number of confirmed cases include an update as two cases reported previously were determined not to be cases.
Although most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, PHD recommends additional measures to prevent exposure among vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions (such as diabetes, cancer, immunodeficiency, asthma, COPD and others). PHD recommends that residents, especially those who are vulnerable:
- Stay home except for essential tasks. Ensure you have a two-week supply of medication on hand.
- When engaging in essential tasks away from home, remain 6 feet away from others and wear a facial covering.
- Wash your hands with soap and water regularly.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Keep surfaces clean by wiping them down with a household disinfectant.
Information for the 4 new confirmed cases can be found below.
Ages of new confirmed cases reported:
| 0-17 | 0 |
| 18-29 | 1 |
| 30-49 | 1 |
| 50-69 | 1 |
| 70+ | 1 |
| Pending | 0 |
*Age data for confirmed cases of persons who are incarcerated will only be shared in aggregate totals on PHD website.
Locations of new cases reported:
| South County Unincorporated Area includes communities of Montecito, Summerland and the City of Carpinteria | 0 |
| City of Santa Barbara and the unincorporated area of Mission Canyon | 2 |
| City of Goleta | 0 |
| Community of Isla Vista | 0 |
| Unincorporated Area of the Goleta Valley and Gaviota | 0 |
| Santa Ynez Valley including the Cities of Solvang & Buellton, and the communities of Santa Ynez, Los Alamos, Los Olivos and Ballard | 1 |
| City of Lompoc and the communities of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village | 1 |
| City of Santa Maria | 0 |
| Community of Orcutt | 0 |
| Unincorporated Areas of Sisquoc, Casmalia, Garey, Cuyama, New Cuyama, and the City of Guadalupe | 0 |
| Location Pending | 0 |
*One new case is a person who is incarcerated at the Federal Prison in Lompoc, CA and part of the identified outbreak.
Sixty-five (65) people are recovering at home, Thirty-four (34) are recovering in a hospital, fourteen (14) of whom are in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and four (4) are pending an update. Eight (8) deaths have been reported.
Please visit Santa Barbara County’s coronavirus web page for other preparedness resources and updates at https://publichealthsbc.org/.
For general questions about COVID-19 and precautions currently recommended by Santa Barbara County Public Health, residents may call the 2-1-1 Call Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by dialing 2-1-1 if calling from within the county; or (800) 400-1572 if calling from outside the area.
Grocery store non compliance to keeping it clean , today I ventured to Albertsons in Carpinteria , as I arrived I see a line to get in. So I go to the line, someone is only wiping off cart handles with the same cloth they just used on previous carts. So I enter I do see a sign on the entry that saids must wear a mask before entering, which I am, and I have my own Clorox Wipes in hand too.
I proceed to shop, I get in line to check out, one line only, so when I get to the check out area, I see a sign that saids do not put your groceries up on counter till the person in front of you has checked out. So I wait to put my groceries up. I look at the cashier and notice she does not change her gloves in between all this preventive signs. I ask her if she could change her gloves and wipe down the belt? Since I have not put my stuff up yet. She tells me NO I won’t change my gloves then ask why should she, so I explain cross contamination, you have touch everyone’s stuff before me, it’s like shaking hands with 100 people and never washing in between. She still refuses. Then asked me if my hands are clean, I showed her my Clorox wipes and said yes. So instead of her doing a simple thing for the customer, she proceeds to the next register and ask the other cashier to check me out, because she is not changing her gloves for me. So the other cashier comes over she does change her gloves. But then she tells me you know other people have touched your food too. I told her yes and I will wipe them off before taking them in my house. Then I find out the stores are not providing bags again. I told her I thought we were not to bring in our bags. Then she saids ‘ you can now, , but we won’t bag your food for you. So now we have to buy bags again but the store won’t use them if we already used them. Just nonsense.
i get that you’re concerned… but that is NOT how cross-contamination is handled.
You have to disinfect yourself when you get out and home. There would not be enough gloves in the universe if every grocery store clerk needed to change their gloves for every customer (a time consuming manner to be done properly) . Remember, THE number one transmission vector is.. Touching your face. (aside from the obvious…someone sneezing / coughing all over your face) everything else is secondary to that. You can wear all the masks and gloves and face shields in the world… but if you fail to resist any single idle temptation to touch any of your major mucus membranes….. it’s all for naught.
This is likely true. I say likely only because you have to take everything China says with a grain of salt for numerous reasons. In any case, I believe the data show it is true that China is currently experiencing very low numbers of localized community transmission. China has widespread testing. Far beyond anything in the US. Coupled with hardcore mandatory quarantine for anyone testing positive (same with Taiwan, South Korea, etc. – police will show up at your door if you go “missing” [like if your cell phone runs out of batteries] while you are on house arrest). But they also have mandatory adoption of masks and a culture of being fine with wearing them, temperature scans everywhere (Want to enter a restaurant? Submit to a scan. Same for the mall, work, etc.), complete overhaul of many workplaces, etc. These are measures that are kind of being half-assed in most of the Western world. Manufacturing is picking back up in China and has been for a while now. But it’s not business as usual as many Americans want to imagine. No, work has changed completely and companies are going to great lengths to adapt in order to continue being able to work. Check out what Foxconn is doing for instance – https://www.businessinsider.com./foxconn-iphone-factories-china-reopen-extreme-covid-coronavirus-safety-measures-2020-4. It helps that China in spite of being an authoritarian regime is has an adaptable economy and production means, unlike the US which has proved very brittle and far too reliant on other countries to make things for us. When China needed billions of masks they were able to start producing them, literally almost over night. We are not so fortunate here.
My main point is – how the heck are people still getting – sure I am being a little nosey – even just for curiosity sake – why can not this info be collected, reviewed, and disseminated. On one hand we are extremely critical of everyone taking precautions – but on the other hand key information is not shared. Let’s say of the 20 most recent cases in SB all of them were coming from people who left and came back. I would think this is newsworthy – and could provide extra peer pressure for people to stay put. For a country that acts like we are so smart – we sure are going about this whole CV situation in a somewhat silly way. It seems to be more about political correctness vs. solving the problem. The only people I take seriously are the hedge fund managers – as they have the smartest people doing the smartest analysis to assess WTF is going on. If based on their analysis they think things are looking better, then the market will go up – else it goes down.
I agree. You can’t expect everyone to be at your sanitary standards. The rules and the best way to do things COVID-19 related are so all over the board. Best bet is to do what you think is best without possibly infecting others. If you want to Clorox all your groceries when you get home just to make sure, you absolutely should! For the store to wash down the belt because groceries touched it, when you’re just going to clean your groceries when you get home, it seems a bit much. Even wearing gloves seems silly to me. Plus, you can’t use a straw, but you can shread through disposable gloves so people feel safe? If you are concerned and are diligent, as you seem to be, you will be fine. Just don’t touch your face!
@Roses
I agree we can’t rely on info from China. We are doing the opposite and quarantining the healthy instead of the sick at this point. They are able to produce testing and PPE because they have the infrastructure and we don’t. Not because our government sucks at their job, but we just don’t have it. It’s because of our disposable culture. Everyone wants everything cheap. A ton of manufacturing has moved abroad to make products affordable. If you are concerned about pollution, labor laws, slavery ect., you shouldn’t be supporting this.
I agree SBLOCAL in that I would also like some more information on how transmission is occurring. But I have some ideas. I’ve seen large groups of people with no masks who are clearly not living together/related congregating. I see many types of people not wearing masks while working together, etc. I do go out most days of the week now that cases are very low and we definitely flattened any curve that could have been developing, etc. and many people are in denial and not wearing masks, hanging out together, etc. in places like coffee shops. I’m young. Female. I don’t have a huge likelihood of dying although I do have type A blood which is a negative as far as COVID severity is concerned (A is associated with clotting more than O and B – see data on stroke, heart attack, etc. irrespective of COVID, add COVID to the mix and you have some serious blood issues going on) but I wear a mask to protect myself and also to protect people like my older parents, my elderly neighbors, healthcare workers, etc. I also agree with GETOVERIT that we are quarantining the healthy and that Asia is not necessarily doing that, but with important caveats. Asia is not quarantining people because they have massive implementation of testing, massive and mandatory adoption of PPE for citizens, mandatory quarantining and tracking, etc. Outside of a pandemic environment, I am not in favor of citizens’ being so controlled by the government but right now it seems like the strategies we have in place in the US will only slow spread of the disease while at the same time having very damaging consequences for the economy. Some of that is impossible to avoid, but with enough testing, widespread adoption of masks and hygiene practices, etc. we could avoid some of that economic pain. Unfortunately many people want to “get back to normal” and they don’t get that nowhere that is experiencing any success has “gone back to normal.” Heck, before COVID even broke, half of Asia wore masks all the time as is. SARS and other avian flu outbreaks prepared them well. I remember visiting Hong Kong about 7 or 8 years ago and we passed through temperature scanners at the airport (where people were detained if they scanned high), etc. America is woefully underprepared for this and unfortunately people on both sides of the aisle seem confused about how to proceed. We have people screaming that we should all be insides of our houses for the next 3 years and people on this website literally saying that no one should be going out for a drive, and then we have people who refuse to wear masks and want everything to be allowed to be like it was before this happened. Both options are terrible. Unfortunately, I do not see how the US can proceed with an Asian model as we lack PPE, testing, contact tracing, and civilian participation. I don’t see a way out of this that doesn’t leave us screwed no matter what.
Things can’t be sterile all the time unless you are in a contained environment (like a hospital room). I assume that everything in the store might be contaminated. Just clean your purchases when you get home, and clean wherever your groceries touched before you cleaned them. Never touch your face. Wash your hands, then relax. I am kind of surprised about the bag issue (but I like to bag my own purchases, so that part doesn’t bother me, as long as they give me time to do it).
Consider Instacart and then just powerwash your groceries when they’re delivered.
Yes, and in a Walmart in Oklahoma people without masks trying to enter the store threatened the employees with violence, including the showing of a firearm. This led the pussy mayor to withdraw the face mask rule. So much for the rule of science and reason or brute force and emotion.
BE CAREFUL! I was at Costco last week and when I came out there was an food delivery service parked next to me. It was a dirty, dinged up, white minivan with Instacart, UberEats, etc. stickers all over it. There was aluminum foil over the rear windows, a make-shift curtain hanging behind the front seats, as well as bedding and clothing (including an Instacart vest) peaking through the semi-opened curtain. It was clear that the owner of the vehicle was living in it. There were two big clumps of dirt and grass, randomly torn from the earth, laying on the dashboard as well—which was just weird. So there’s that. Then a few months ago my wife and I were at a fast food restaurant waiting on our to-go order and a driver came in to collect his order and was given a stack of four empty cups for soda. We were standing by the soda machine at the time and watched the driver put his fingers into each cup as he separated them. Gross. I’m so glad I’ve never used these services.
A person can be a carrier and not exhibit any symptoms. Hence the whole wearing a mask to protect others thing.
You sound like a picky and difficult customer who made this person’s job much harder. Try Instacart.
Despite about 90% of positive cases for COVID-19 have been in the North County, there were demonstrations this weekend for ending “lockdown” in Santa Maria and Lompoc.
Few people wore masks or kept a 6 ft. distance apart.
Worrisome!
I don’t know what instacart is.
I have to wonder, though. Why isn’t everyone working, are the grocery store workers immune from the virus???? And if I am willing to follow all cleaning rules and wear a face mask, then I see on the store entry everyone must wear a mask, then I see people in the store who are not. I will wear a mask for 2 years if needed. I just want everyone else to also. I feel like every time I go to the store it’s like playing Russian rulet with my life.
One day we will know what this disease is, but until then, we all must take care and be safe. What I do and what others do effects all of us. So don’t be selfish. And don’t get mad cause I asked you to change your gloves. What if the doctor didn’t wash his hands and change his gloves everytime he saw a new patient, how gross would that be.
gotta love that “gig economy”. never know what yer really gonna get. Innovation, baby!
don’t worry, brute force always finds a way. == https://gothamist.com/news/video-nypd-officer-beating-social-distancing-enforcement
Does anyone remember this? in only 2 weeks!! Death sucks!
https://www.independent.com/2018/01/08/flu-kills-eight-santa-barbara-residents-two-weeks/
EHDAT, thanks for posting that and being a voice of reason amid a local sea of fear and panic. A lot of us have been mentioning the flu, only to be ridiculed and down voted by the “You Can’t Compare This To The Flu” crowd.
Carnival Ships will start sailing again in August (ready or not). Will the City of S.B. require passengers to wear face masks here, and will passengers be checked for fever by our medical people? –Or– will S.B. JUST SAY NO…
Who said contaminated food, so why are the meat packer plants closed?
Wow no one here knows what side of the fence to be on?
How do we stop the spread? Why are people still getting sick?
Where are they getting sick?
Well if the only place we’re going the store’
Ok, I’m not here to argue, but I surly don’t want to get sick,
Our leaders do t even know what this is’ or how to save us. It’s all trial and error, that’s really scary when this is about life.
No her gloves touched everything that another person before me and so forth has touched.
Without knowing who washed their hands before touching the items , or sneezed or coughed in the hand. Now her hands have basically touched all of them that she has checked out.
Pick a side, be safe or not
The City of SB will not require passengers to wear face masks, and passengers/crew will not be checked for “fever.”
a person can also have an “invisible disability” which prevents them from wearing a mask for any real length of time. Santa Barbara city order is one of the few Mask Requiring orders out there which does not include any lines about a medical exemption. my… how .. “progressive” == https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=227413
Anyone who thinks COVID-19 is in any way comparable to influenza is a complete and utter moron.
But the grocery clerk is not touching you. She’s touching food that has been on the shelves and is already possibly contaminated. No sense in her changing gloves every time she touches a new batch of dirty groceries.
Isn’t that to soon?