By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
May 10, 2021
| 6:36 p.m.
Children ages 12 and up in Santa Barbara County and across the country are now eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency-use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine to include children ages 12 to 15.
“The FDA’s expansion of the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents 12 through 15 years of age is a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock.
“Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic.”
By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
May 7, 2021
| 7:50 p.m.
For the past two weeks, Santa Barbara County residents younger than age 18 have returned the most positive COVID-19 test results, but only 40% of that age group have already received the vaccine, Public Health Officer Henning Ansorg shared at Friday’s county COVID-19 press briefing.
There have been several outbreaks at various high schools across the county, Ansorg said. While most of the outbreaks were related to student athletes, unsanctioned parties and social events also have been a source of virus transmission, he added.
In the past two weeks, there have been 59 new cases reported among residents younger than age 18, according to Noozhawk’s data tracking.
By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
May 5, 2021
| 7:39 p.m.
Santa Barbara County Public Health officials reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a daily number that hasn’t been that low in more than three weeks.
There have been 137 new cases reported during the past week, averaging 19.6 new cases per day. That is 23% less than the week prior when the county was averaging 25.4 new cases per day, according to data tracking done by Noozhawk.
There were 140 cases still considered infectious on Wednesday.
No additional deaths were reported on Wednesday, and the county’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll remained at 450. There have been five COVID-19-related deaths reported in the county during the past two weeks.
By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
April 30, 2021
| 8:35 p.m.
Santa Barbara County’s updated local coronavirus variant tracking data identified nearly 60% of the virus samples collected as variants of concern.
UC Santa Barbara and Cottage Health have been collecting local virus samples since October in order to determine which virus variants may be circulating throughout the county.
The variant tracking teams have collected 291 samples in total, and while the sample size is relatively small, it still gives health officials an idea about which variants are present in the community.
Out of the 18 sample results from April, 12 were identified as the United Kingdom strain and one was identified as the West Coast strain, according to the county’s Community Data Dashboard.
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