By Brooke Holland, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @BT_Holland January 15, 2021 | 9:12 p.m. With a post-holiday COVID-19 surge unfolding, the spread of the virus in Santa Barbara County is the highest of all California counties. Speaking at the weekly press briefing on Friday, Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso explained the reasoning behind that latest data and how the county is in dire straits amid the raging pandemic. “The rate of COVID-19 spreading is higher in Santa Barbara County than any other jurisdiction in California,” Do-Reynoso said. “These are grim numbers — extremely, extremely concerning.” The county's effective reproductive number, also called the R-effective, is the average number of people that each infected person will pass the virus onto, and it represents the rate that COVID-19 is spreading, according to the California Department of Public Health. The average R-effective number uses estimates from Covid Act Now, the state site says.