Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday at noon the required closure of certain indoor gathering places: restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers (such as bowling alleys and batting cages), zoos, museums, and cardrooms. The measures go into effect immediately in 19 counties, including Santa Barbara, and will be sustained for at least three weeks.
California crested 6,000 deaths today, with 110 people dying in the past 24 hours, Newsom said, from a disease that targets the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, attacking the lungs and other organ systems throughout the body, including the brain and kidneys, and leaving lasting damage. The demographic has skewed toward younger people in California and Santa Barbara County, however. Newsom stated that in addition to deaths, positive tests were also on the rise. The 19 counties had been on a three-day watch list for steeply climbing cases of COVID-19 and include neighboring Ventura, Kern, and Los Angeles counties.
New cases in Santa Barbara hit a peak yesterday with 96 new cases, a county high outside the Lompoc Penitentiary infections, and an additional death that raised the total to 29 who are known to have died of COVID-19 in the county since April. Sixty people were hospitalized — a 13 percent rise over two weeks ago — and 21 are in intensive care beds, 16 percent of those available.