Santa Barbara County health experts call for more COVID testing despite move to red reopening tier
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. St. Patrick’s Day was the first major holiday in California to fall short in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Now, it’s the first major holiday many California counties were able to celebrate thanks to a recent promotion to the state s less-restrictive Red Tier.
On Tuesday, Santa Barbara County moved from the Purple Tier, the most restrictive tier, to the Red Tier. One piece of the puzzle health officials look at to determine reopening status is vaccine distribution.
For Santa Barbara County to move into the even less restrictive Orange Tier, the county needs a below 5% positive test rate. Santa Barbara County Public Health officials said the county is currently at 3.3%. So the county must maintain its below 5% positive test rate for three more weeks in order to be eligible to move into the Orange Tier.
Santa Barbara County Public Health reported 73 new coronavirus cases and one new death on Thursday. This brings the countywide death toll to 421 and the case total to 32, 219.