As of March 19, the total number of cases of COVID-19 in Ventura County has risen to a total of 17. Days earlier, on March 18, Ventura County Public Health revealed in a series of press releases that five new cases of COVID-19 in Ventura County were thought to be the result of community transmission.
Ventura County Public Information Officer, Ashley Bautista confirmed that the cases of community transmission reported in the March 18 press release were part of six cases described by Director of Ventura County Public Health Rigoberto Vargas during a March 17 Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting.
The remaining case, of the six reported by Vargas, was discovered in Utah, but involves a Ventura resident. However, Bautista continued, there is currently an investigation into whether the individual had recently been in Ventura.
Ventura County Public Health has since announced a further six cases of COVID-19 in the days following the March 17 board meeting and also declared that it would no longer be separating CDC positive test results from Ventura County Public Health positive test results in its public COVID-19 statistics. This change will be placed into effect as the CDC will no longer be confirming the results of local labs. Instead, local labs will be providing final results moving forward.
These newly announced cases of COVID-19 bring the current total of infected in Ventura County to 17, with three travel-related cases, one case involving a spouse of one of the travel-related cases and five cases of assumed community transmission. The remaining eight cases do not have reported modes of transmission yet.
Several clinics in Ventura County have now started drive-thru testing for COVID-19. At the March 17 board meeting, Ambulatory Care Medical Director Dr. Theresa Cho informed the board that testing was occurring at all sites and that four locations had started drive-thru testing, with more to follow by the end of the week.
Additional information about the coronavirus and Ventura County services is available online at VC Emergency and from a 24/7 hotline which can be reached by dialing 211.
