SANTA BARBARA, CA – 7/2/2020
Santa Barbara County Health Officer, Dr. Henning Ansorg has issued a health officer order requiring all beaches to be closed to the public during the July 4th weekend. This order is effective from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 3, 2020 and continuing until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 5, 2020.
**Please note: Public beaches are closed with exception that the ocean is open for water sports (e.g. surfing, swimming, paddle-boarding, kayaking, boating) and the beaches may be used for running, walking, cycling, or other forms of active physical activity. Passive activities like sunbathing, sitting, and picnicking are prohibited, as are umbrellas, tents, shade structures, beach chairs, coolers, and barbecues.
This order is being issued in response to Santa Barbara County not meeting the threshold criteria for Elevated Disease Transmission, Increasing Hospitalization, and Limited Hospital Capacity for the past 16 days as noted in the County Monitoring Metrics.
“The temporary closure of all beaches is necessary due to the anticipated high volume of people at our beaches during the July 4th weekend, which will impede the practice of safe and necessary social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County,” said Dr. Henning Ansorg. “The landscape for this upcoming weekend has changed in the past few days as more and more counties have decided to close their beaches. This raised significant concern for the impacts to our local community.”
The full health officer order can be found here.
The City of Santa Barbara will close all of its beach parking lots for the 4th of July weekend beginning on Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5. Public parking on Stearns Wharf and Harbor Main lots will remain open to support liveaboard residents, the marina and adjacent businesses.
More information about the COVID-19 response locally, visit www.publichealthsbc.org or call the County Call Center at (833) 688-5551.