Portions of Santa Barbara County are seeing major declines in active cases of COVID-19, and that could have significant impacts on the county’s reopening policies. In fact, it’s already freed local elementary schools to apply to open for in-person instruction.
At a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 18, Public Health Department staff announced that due to recent decreased transmission rates of COVID-19 cases, Santa Barbara County’s elementary schools are eligible to apply for waivers that would allow them to reopen for face-to-face learning. Local applications will be available on the Public Health Department’s website by the end of this week.
“Our significant decrease in the transmission rate in the county makes us eligible to allow for waivers for elementary schools,” Dr. Henning Ansorg said at the Aug. 18 meeting. “We’re very pleased to announce that this process will be available in the county for K-6 grade schools.”
According to state guidelines, elementary schools in counties that are still on the state’s coronavirus watchlist—Santa Barbara County is still on the state’s list—can apply for waivers allowing them to provide in-person instruction. The application process is extensive, Ansorg said, and requires schools to provide evidence that they’ve consulted adequately with labor organizations and parents, along with a detailed reopening plan that outlines strategies for maintaining hygiene, distancing, testing of staff and students, family education, and quick ways to switch back to remote learning if necessary.
Those documents are then reviewed by both county and state public health staff, who determine whether to reopen schools based on the applications and local transmission data.
But in order for schools to even be eligible to apply, their counties must have had fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 people for at least 14 days in a row.
While Santa Barbara County ended July with about 324 cases per 100,000, according to data presented by the county Public Health Department on Aug. 18, its transmission rate sat at about 158 per 100,000 as of Aug. 17.
Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said that as of Aug. 17, Santa Barbara County has seen 7,454 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, and there are 278 active cases.
Over a recent two-week period, Santa Maria saw a 41 percent decrease in new cases. Lompoc saw a 38 percent decrease and Santa Barbara had a 25 percent decrease. The majority of cases—about 66 percent—are occurring in those aged 18 to 49, and very few are occurring in those under 18.
Still, Do-Reynoso said Goleta saw an 18 percent increase in cases in the last two weeks, and Isla Vista saw a 255 percent increase, likely due to college students returning to the area.
There’s work to be done to get off of the state’s watch list, Do-Reynoso said, but the county is making progress.
“This has a significant impact on policy decisions in our county and what can be reopened,” she said at the Aug. 18 meeting.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2020.
