New COVID Vaccines Approved as Cases Rise in Santa Barbara County

COVID cases have been rising all summer across Santa Barbara County, where a water polo game between Carpinteria High and the Dons in August was postponed due to the virus infecting a number of Santa Barbara players. This Tuesday, the latest mRNA COVID vaccines were approved by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). They might not have prevented the water polo outbreak, but they are widely recommended to reduce the severity of the disease, which continues to be highly contagious.

Three and a half years after the pandemic began, “95 percent of our population has some protection against COVID,” said Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons. “And that protection is coming from vaccines, from an infection we had, and perhaps from an infection we didn’t know we had.” She observed that at Cottage Hospital, where Dr. Fitzgibbons leads the infectious diseases division, they’ve had far fewer patients than at any earlier time during the pandemic.

As of September 2, the hospitals across the county had 11 COVID patients; by contrast, nearly a year ago, 17 patients in the hospitals indicated “normal” was returning. No deaths occurred over the past week; in total, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 814 persons in Santa Barbara County. Looking at wastewater, which can show the amount of virus in the community, a plateau was occurring in Santa Barbara earlier this month, a decline in Goleta, and an increase in Lompoc. For the county as a whole, the level of disease is “low,” according to the CDC.