Santa Barbara and SLO counties headed to less restrictive COVID-19 tiers

March 10, 2021

Santa Barbara County could be in the COVID-19 red tier as soon as Friday, while San Luis Obispo County is headed for the orange tier.

Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newson announced another change in the tier system. As soon as the state has given 2 million vaccines of the 40% he has set aside for underprivileged communities, the number of average daily cases per 100,000 required to move into the red tier will increase from seven to 10. The state has already administered more than 1.9 million of those vaccine doses.

Santa Barbara County is currently at 9.7 cases per day and will move into the red tier after the 2 million vaccine mark is reached.

While SLO County has the numbers to move from the red tier into the even less restrictive orange tier, the state requires counties to remain in a tier for three weeks before moving to the next tier. If SLO Counties numbers do not increase, the county will move into the orange tier in two weeks.

Over the past two days, SLO County reported 106 new cases, bringing the county’s total to 19,966 since the beginning of the pandemic. Of those, 248 have died.

There are 15 SLO County residents in the hospital receiving treatment for the virus, with five in intensive care units.

Cases by area

• Paso Robles – 3,944
• San Luis Obispo – 3,780
• California Men’s Colony (inmates) – 2,384
• Atascadero – 1,886
• Nipomo – 1,501
• Arroyo Grande – 1,413
• Grover Beach – 830
• Oceano – 677
• Templeton – 599
• San Miguel – 504
• Los Osos – 458
• Morro Bay – 408
• Cal Poly (campus residents) – 373
• Pismo Beach – 322
• Atascadero State Hospital (patients) – 206
• Cambria – 174
• Shandon – 139
• Santa Margarita – 132
• Creston – 83
• Cayucos – 68
• Avila Beach – 28
• San Simeon – 21
• Bradley – 7

In Santa Barbara County, there have been 32,474 confirmed coronavirus cases and 425 deaths, according to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.

Cases by area:

• • Santa Maria — 10,942
  • Santa Barbara — 6,090
  • Lompoc — 3,404
  • Orcutt — 1,716
  • Lompoc Federal Prison — 1,088

As of Wednesday afternoon, there have been 3,609,470 positive cases, and 54,725 deaths in California.

More than 29,852,567 U.S. residents have tested positive for the virus, and 541,914 have died.

In addition, the number of people infected with the virus worldwide continues to increase: 118,592,567 cases with 2,630,443 dead.

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