Welcome to Noozhawk Asks, a new feature in which you ask the questions, you help decide what Noozhawk investigates, and you work with us to find the answers.
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By Brooke Holland, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @BT Holland
May 2, 2021
| 5:05 p.m.
Santa Barbara County officials on Sunday reported an additional 18 confirmed COVID-19 cases and no new virus-related fatalities.
The county has confirmed 34,223 coronavirus cases since the first positive case was reported in March 2020, according to the county Public Health Department.
To date, 450 people have died from COVID-19 in the county, the online status report released Sunday showed.
Eight COVID-19 patients were in local hospitals, down from 11 the previous day, according to the county.
Two of those patients were being treated in intensive-care units, a number that has remained unchanged from Friday.
Welcome to Noozhawk Asks, a new feature in which you ask the questions, you help decide what Noozhawk investigates, and you work with us to find the answers.
Here’s how it works: You share your questions with us in the nearby box. In some cases, we may work with you to find the answers. In others, we may ask you to vote on your top choices to help us narrow the scope. And we’ll be regularly asking you for your feedback on a specific issue or topic.
We also expect to work together with the reader who asked the winning questions to find the answer together. Noozhawk’s objective is to come at questions from a place of curiosity and openness, and we believe a transparent collaboration is the key to achieve it.
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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