By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @MartinezPogue
August 3, 2021
| 9:02 p.m.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department plans to issue a new health officer order on Wednesday mandating universal masking indoors for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, as the spread of the Delta variant causes an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the county.
The health order will go into effect on Friday.
Public Health does not plan to send out additional information about the order until it is finalized and posted, but Santa Barbara County’s RISE program alerted members of the business community on Tuesday, including the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, before any notice was given to the general public.
That means more than five out of every 100 people who get tested have a positive result.
Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said the county and its community partners are finding one-on-one conversations to be the most effective way to convince people to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Many people who have not been vaccinated yet have concerns about the safety of the vaccines or have been too busy to get one, public health officials said, while others are categorically against vaccination. (Screenshot via Santa Barbara County Public Health Department COVID-19 Briefing)
“As you can see, our numbers are increasing and increasing in a very rapid manner in the span of two weeks,” Do-Reynoso said.
Housing and Development Newsletter
“Breakthrough cases,” which refer to fully vaccinated people who have been infected by the virus, are now happening with the Delta variant, said Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg.
“Fortunately, vaccinated persons do not get more serious disease and do not require hospitalization. Whereas virtually every hospitalized person with COVID is unvaccinated and most of them state they regret not getting vaccinated and urge their families and friends to do so as soon as possible.”
Santa Barbara County novel coronavirus and COVID-19 information as of July 16. (Santa Barbara County Public Health Department Community Data Dashboard photo)
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.
Delta variant concerns, local vaccination efforts among topics discussed with SBC Public Health keyt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from keyt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.