Santa Barbara County to heed governor’s advice, move forward with bar closures
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Bars in Santa Barbara County will close once again at the suggestion of Governor Gavin Newsom.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department issued a new health officer order on Monday, leading to the closure of bars within the county.
Bars will be mandated to close beginning Wednesday. The total number of affected facilities is unclear at this time, but the order will not include restaurants or wine tasting rooms.
The order comes as hospitalizations continue to rise in Santa Barbara County and amid a rising number of new COVID-19 cases across the state.
On Sunday, Newsom ordered bars to be closed in seven counties, including Kern, Kings and Los Angeles Counties. In addition, Newsom recommended counties with a growing number of cases and hospitalizations take steps to close their bars as well. These counties included Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Santa Barbara County recorded hundreds of new coronavirus cases over the last week. On June 19, Santa Barbara County Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg warned of hospitals in the county approaching capacity for COVID-19 patients.
On the state's Bar Closure Guidance page, the state lays out guidance for counties added to the County Monitoring List. Counties on this list must close their bars immediately if they remain on the list for longer than 14 days. Counties who have been on the list for more than three days and less than 14 days were only recommended to close bars.
These new recommended closures come days after tattoo parlors, nail salons and other personal care businesses were allowed to reopen by the Public Health Departments of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
It also comes shortly after the Governor unveiled a new COVID-19 Assessment Tool which uses the data currently known about the virus to predict future rises in deaths and hospitalizations. This tool predicted a spike in deaths in both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties over the next month.
