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W E D N E S D A Y , M A R C H 1 7, 2 0 2 1
Santa Barbara County back in red tier By MADISON HIRNEISEN
“We definitely can celebrate experiencing these downward trends … but I really want to stress we have to stay vigilant collectively as a county so that we can continue to see a decline in case rates and other metrics,” said Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, the Santa Barbara County public health director, Tuesday about COVID-19.
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At long last, Santa Barbara County has officially moved into the red tier, marking a transition that will ease restrictions for businesses and reopen movie theaters and museums at a limited capacity. State officials announced that the county met the threshold to move into the red tier around noon Tuesday, and the updated red tier restrictions will go into effect today. In the red tier, retail storefronts and shopping centers can open at 50% capacity indoors, and restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters, zoos, aquariums and
museums can open at 25% capacity indoors. In addition, red tier restrictions allow gyms to open at 10% capacity indoors. Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, the director of the county’s Public Health Department, relayed this news to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday in addition to providing updated data on the COVID-19 pandemic. She also provided supervisors with an update on vaccine distribution in the county, highlighting that 24% of the county’s vaccine allotment this week will be distributed in the agriculture sector. The COVID vaccine has been a hotbutton topic in recent days after the Biden administration announced ambitious plans
Cold Spring Bridge to get upgrades In the coming months, Cold Spring Bridge will get a new coat of green paint to cover up its rusty exterior thanks to a Caltrans project that began on Monday.
last week to make the vaccine available to all people by May 1. During Tuesday’s meeting, 1st District Supervisor Das Williams voiced skepticism at this goal. “We have nearly 450,000 people in the county. If only 85% of those folks want to get vaccinated … that still means that we have, after the 120,000 that have already been administered, another 600,000 to 645,000 vaccines that need to be administered,” Mr. Williams said. “If the current amount (of vaccine) we’re getting doubled, it would still take 27 weeks.” In the past two weeks, active cases decreased by 42% in the county, and testing Please see red tier on A4
FYI The state has a website for vaccine eligibility. To see if you qualify for a vaccine and to make an appointment, visit myturn. ca.gov.
District discusses dual-language campus SB Unified junior high, high schools to open campuses this week By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Santa Barbara Unified School District officials revealed more about its Multilingual Excellence Transforming Achievement plan during the school board meeting Tuesday evening, including transforming McKinley Elementary School into a duallanguage immersion campus. A total of 15.3% of the district’s students are emergent multilingual learners, and 64% of those learners are enrolled in elementary school. The district uses the term “emergent multilingual learners” instead of “English learners” to acknowledge the asset of being multilingual, which the META program cherishes, said María Larios-Horton, executive director
of diversity, equity and family engagement for the district. To better address emergent multilingual learners, administrators plan to expand the dual-language immersion program at McKinley Elementary School, Santa Barbara Junior High and Santa Barbara High School. “Unequivocally and without reservation, we can say that dual-language immersion is the gold standard for all students — but especially for emergent multilingual students,” Ms. LariosHorton said. Dual-language immersion is offered at Adelante Charter School and was established in seventh grade at Santa Barbara Junior High this school year. Currently, 29 students are Please see schools on A4
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS
By MADISON HIRNEISEN
Karim Kaderal swabs his nose to test for COVID-19 outside of the BusTest Express, a mobile testing vehicle leased by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.
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Cold Spring Bridge on State Route 154 will receive some external upgrades in the coming months as part of a Caltrans project to clean, inspect and repaint the bridge. The maintenance project, which officially began Monday, will complete necessary inspections and give the bridge a fresh coating of green paint for the first time in 50 years. In addition, the project will add a catwalk underneath the structure to allow easier access for crews to perform future inspections. Motorists can expect some traffic delays as a result of the project, but delays are not anticipated to last more than 10 minutes, Caltrans District Five Public Information Officer Jim Shivers said. Highway crews will be working on the bridge Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the bridge will operate with only one lane at these times. The $7 million project is expected to be finished by the spring of 2023. In the meantime, Mr. Shivers told the News-Press
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COVID-19 testing bus parks beachside By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS
The Caltrans project on Cold Spring Bridge will reduce the bridge to one lane during maintenance hours Monday through Friday. Officials say traffic delays will remain under 10 minutes for travelers.
Tuesday that “the bridge is in good shape and remains safe for everyone.” “All of our bridges are inspected statewide every two years,” Mr. Shivers said. “So it’s not out of the ordinary to see this work performed.”
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email: mhirneisen@newspress.com
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The state currently owns more than 24,000 bridges across California, all of which are inspected and maintained by Caltrans.
Nasal swabs joined the scene by Santa Barbara’s waterfront Tuesday as the county’s COVID-19 testing bus parked at 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd. It will remain beachside until the end of March. The bus, wrapped with graphics from California’s COVID-19 awareness campaign, is leased by the Santa Barbara County Public
Health Department. Although it may look like a walk-up clinic, appointments are required. It has traveled to Lompoc, Carpinteria and Santa Maria after beginning in a CenCal Health parking lot in Santa Barbara. These buses have hit the road throughout California from Storer, a bus company that thought of the testing bus concept during the pandemic. Please see testing on A3
Obituaries............. A4 Sudoku................. B3 Weather................ A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 3-7-8-13-21 Meganumber: 19
Tuesday’s DAILY 4: 8-2-6-6
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 10-41-46-52-69 Meganumber: 8
Tuesday’s FANTASY 5: 3-11-13-22-23
Tuesday’s DAILY DERBY: 12-08-07 Time: 1:49.21
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 5-11-51-56-61 Meganumber: 2
Tuesday’s DAILY 3: 2-5-4 / Sunday’s Midday 3-1-5