By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
July 2, 2021
| 6:38 p.m.
The most recent COVID-19 surveillance data identified two cases as the more transmissible Delta variant, according to Santa Barbara County Public Health officials.
The department was notified on Thursday by the UC Santa Barbara virology lab of the two additional cases. However, because surveillance testing usually lags about four weeks, the two Delta variant cases were identified in April.
“If one sick person gave the virus to about two or three people with the previous variants that we had, this Delta type is given to about five to six people from one infected person,” Public Health Officer Henning Ansorg said.