Santa Barbara News-Press: January 06, 2021

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Puzzles and ping-pong

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Cate’s Borchardt wins Scholar-Athlete award - A7

UCSB speaker Will Shortz to clue you in on his passions - A3

Our 165th Year

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W E DN E S DAY, J A N UA RY 6 , 2 0 21

Delays with vaccines Some local nursing homes have not received doses

Some wait for stimulus checks Delays occur with $600 payments as IRS reroutes funds By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS

Covenant Living at Samarkand is in the process of getting the Pfizer vaccine for its residents and employees within its skilled nursing care.

By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Some Santa Barbara County nursing homes are still waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines that started arriving in mid-December. As of right now, the county is distributing COVID-19 vaccines for Phase 1A, tiers one and two. These tiers include, in this order: hospital workers, staff and residents in long-term care settings serving high-risk

individuals; emergency medical services providers; dialysis center staff; intermediate care facilities; home health workers; community health workers; and primary, correctional and urgent care clinics. Some care facilities in Santa Barbara County are in the process of administering their first doses of the vaccine, but others either have not administered them or declined to comment. At Country Oaks Care Center

in Santa Maria, vaccines were promised to arrive either the last week of December or the first week of January. According to Country Oaks Administrator John Henning, the facility has yet to hear any word on the vaccine’s arrival. “As of now, we don’t have a date yet,” Mr. Henning told the News-Press Tuesday. “I’ve been communicating with CVS on a regular basis trying to find out when we’re going to get the

vaccine, so yesterday, I forced the issue on them. Other people have it and we don’t have it.” CVS and Walgreens are partnering with long-term care facilities on the distribution of the vaccines. Mr. Henning said that upon some investigation, Country Oaks got dropped from CVS’ system on Monday, leaving the center with no indication as to when the facility can expect the doses. Please see delays on A8

Healthcare providers asked to step up as cases increase Public health approves 42 facilities for vaccine distribution By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Public health officials are declaring the presence of COVID19 in Santa Barbara County “dire” as cases overwhelm ICU capacity. While the COVID-19 vaccine offers hope, healthcare providers are tasked with an additional responsibility administering the vaccine. “The hospitals are preparing to implement crisis care,” Dr. Henning Ansorg, Santa Barbara County public health officer, said in a news conference Tuesday. “Crisis care means people with urgent health needs other than COVID may not receive the level of the care they need.” Santa Barbara County Public Health Department lists the current ICU capacity at an adjusted rate of 0%. “We are continuing to see a record number of community members test positive, so that leads us to believe that our hospitalizations will only increase,” Dr. David Fisk, medical director for Cottage Health’s infection control program and infectious disease physician at Sansum Clinic, said in an interview with the NewsPress.

Although Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has surge capacity beds and cots, it lacks the staff to tend to these extra beds. Dr. Fisk says staff members are getting sick, likely at home or in the community, and hospitals

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Please see vaccines on A2

email: ahanshaw@newspress.com

SB to consider making all new residential construction electric By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Gas may be a thing of the past. The Santa Barbara Sustainability Committee — composed of Mayor Cathy Murillo, Mayor Pro Tempore Kristen Sneddon and City Council member Meagan Harmon — are recommending the city make all new residential construction electric. In November 2020, the committee began its discussion, hoping to create an opportunity for use of a Reach Code to align with local greenhouse gas goals. The built environment, which includes homes, is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the state. Reach Codes allow local governments to adopt more stringent requirements. There are a few legal requirements by the state for Reach Codes. The codes must be costeffective, meaning energy savings should cover costs within the project’s lifetime. In addition, appliance requirements cannot be more stringent than efficiency levels of Federal Appliance Standards. Finally, buildings can’t use more energy than that permitted by state code. If adopted, all natural gas

RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO

Mayor Cathy Murillo is part of the Santa Barbara Sustainability Committee, which is recommending the city make all new residential construction electric.

hookups in new residential construction would be eliminated. “We’re beginning the discussion about natural gas, and natural gas is a fossil fuel which adds to our carbon footprint,” Mayor Murillo told the News-Press Tuesday. “It’s a good discussion, and the community needs to think about what kind of energy we are going to use in the future.”

Please see electric on A2

L O T T E RY RESU LTS

ins id e Classified.............. A6 Life.................... A 3-4 Obituaries............. A8

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don’t regularly employ the numbers they need to take on a pandemic. Cottage is recruiting people from other aspects of the healthcare industry and has had some success in recent days.

“Given that healthcare institutions across the country are particularly stressed and strapped right now, it is extremely difficult,” he said. Particularly for vaccine distribution, healthcare providers are looking to retired physicians who still have the ability to administer the vaccine. Cottage Health is one of 42 facilities working with the Public Health Department in a distribution plan for the vaccine. The county is currently able to administer 350 doses of the vaccine per day but will soon increase that to 500. Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, estimates they will be able to reach 1,000 vaccinations per day by early February. “My hope, with my fingers crossed, is that by March we are able to offer the vaccine to the community at large,” she said in Tuesday’s press conference. Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health authorized Santa Barbara County to administer vaccines to all three tiers in Phase 1a. (To see a chart of the vaccine distribution

The second round of stimulus checks was scheduled for Monday, but some Americans are waiting longer than others. Many took to Twitter Monday to complain that Economic Impact Payments were being sent to temporary accounts created by tax preparers like H&R Block and TurboTax — leaving the funds inaccessible to users. On Tuesday morning, H&R Block tweeted: “H&R Block understands stimulus checks are vitally important for millions of Americans. The IRS determines where second stimulus payments were sent, and in some cases, money was sent to a different account than the first stimulus payment last spring.” H&R Block “processed millions of stimulus payments to customers’ bank accounts and onto our Emerald Prepaid Mastercard” Monday, according to another tweet. Tonia Camarillo, receptionist at the H&R Block located at 21 N. Milpas St. in Santa Barbara, said it hasn’t been too busy at the office. Some customers have called in to check their status, but many have already gotten their refund. “There haven’t been too many

hiccups. Some are just trying to get their Emerald Card, and they have to come in to get that,” she told the News-Press Tuesday. To track a payment status, the Internal Revenue Service launched a “Get My Payment” tool Monday at irs.gov/ getmypayment. The tool helps users find the format of the payment: direct deposit, mailed check or debit card. If the funds were deposited, it provides the account number. Payments have already started through direct deposit and will continue through mid-January. Mailed checks take longer to process and started being mailed Dec. 30. “Because of the speed at which the IRS issued this second round of payments, some payments may have been sent to an account that may be closed or no longer active,” the IRS said in a news release Monday. The release pleaded for people to stop calling, stating that “IRS phone assisters do not have additional information beyond what’s available on IRS.gov.” For those who did not receive payment or only received the partial amount, they can claim the Recovery Rebate Credit when filing 2020’s taxes.

Sudoku................. A5 Sports ................... A7 Weather................ A8

Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 11-19-35-40-46 Meganumber: 18

Tuesday’s DAILY 4: 6-2-1-1

Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS:20-43-51-55-57 Meganumber:4

Tuesday’s FANTASY 5: 3-9-13-17-38

Tuesday’s DAILY DERBY: 07-10-08 Time: 1:49.19

Saturday’s POWERBALL: 3-4-11-41-67 Meganumber: 5

Tuesday’s DAILY 3: 4-9-4 / Tuesday’s Midday 5-8-5


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