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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control for Cottage Health delivered an urgent message to the Santa Barbara County community ahead of Fourth of July weekend, as local coronavirus cases rise. Dr. David Fisk, who is an infectious disease physician for Cottage Health and Sansum Clinic, says the county is seeing a "very dramatic increase" in COVID-19 circulating in the community. “As a physician and en epidemiologist who deals with infections, transmissible, communicable disease, I’m extremely concerned,” Dr. Fisk said Thursday. “This is a time where the health of our community is at risk. “There is much more risk of acquiring this virus, as of today, than there has been at any point since the onset of this epidemic in San...

Public health officials on Friday linked 18 new coronavirus cases in Clark County to a Vancouver restaurant. Four employees and 14 customers of Orchards Tap Bar & Grill have tested positive for coronavirus, according to Clark County Public Health. “Given the number of customers who have tested positive, we’re concerned others may be at risk of getting sick,” Dr. Alan Melnick, director of Clark County Public Health, said in a statement. The agency is working now to identify people who may have been exposed, said spokesperson Marissa Armstrong. County officials urge people who visited Orchards Tap Bar & Grill between June 19 and 25 to get tested for coronavirus — even if they don’t have symptoms — and to quarantine at home for two weeks since the day they visited. The county is st...

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — After months of diligently isolating, truck driver Tommy Macias, 51, made one error that cost him his life. He went to a barbecue party with some friends. He didn’t know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there. “It was all preventable,” said Gustavo Lopez, Macias’ 52-year-old brother-in-law. “That person knew he had corona and still went. He should have known better, and that one mistake cost (Macias) his life.” More than 10 others who attended that gathering have tested positive for the coronavirus, Lopez said. According to Macias’ family members, the Lake Elsinore man had practi...

A coronavirus outbreak at the University of Washington’s off-campus frat houses has left at least 93 students sickened with the illness, the school announced Friday. Eighty-nine of the infected students at the Seattle school live on Greek Row, while the other four came into close contact with frat house residents. “What is occurring north of campus provides lessons for students as they consider their return to campus this fall,” Dr. Geoffrey Gottlieb, chair of the UW Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, said Tuesday,  when the outbreak was first reported. Gottlieb warned that in order to establish some semblance of “normalcy” — with socializing and attending classes — students must wear face coverings and practice social distancing. “If we don’t, measures such as w...