How Bay Area ICU capacity compares to the most impacted areas in California, nation

San Francisco Chronicle, by Kellie Hwang, Dec. 11, 2020 

Hospitals in the Bay Area, California and across the nation are running short of intensive care unit beds as the latest coronavirus surge sets new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

On Thursday, California reported a record 2,710 ICU hospitalizations, and four of five state regions, including part of the Bay Area, were under the regional stay-at-home order issued last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The order is triggered when available ICU hospital capacity dips below 15%.

The five regions, based on California’s mutual aid system and emergency response networks, are the Bay Area, Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, Greater Sacramento and Northern California.

The Southern California region, with 7.7% ICU availability as of Thursday, and the San Joaquin Valley, with just 1.9% availability, fell under the stay-at-home order last weekend. Restrictions went into effect overnight Thursday for the Greater Sacramento area, with 13.3% availability.

The Bay Area region was at 17.8% available ICU capacity Thursday, though five of its 11 counties — San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Marin — have voluntarily tightened restrictions in line with the state order. Sonoma County announced Thursday it will join them this weekend. Northern California had the highest ICU availability in the state, at 30.3%.

Critical shortages are occurring across the nation. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began releasing COVID-19 hospital capacity data at the facility level, aggregating daily hospital reports and sharing them on a weekly basis. The New York Times has created an interactive map detailing the ICU capacity throughout the U.S.  [BenIndy editor: The NYTimes map shows Fairfield (22 of 30 ICU beds occupied, 75% on Dec. 9) as well as Vallejo (20 of 24, 81%) and Vacaville (10 of 11, 91%).  It’s a little hard to navigate the map, but worth it for the numbers.  – R.S.] 

Here are the ICU occupancy rates for both the most-impacted and the largest high-population locations in the Bay Area, compared with California and the U.S., according to the data released Monday. The figures are based on seven-day average patient count by hospital service area.

Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied

 Vacaville: 91% of ICU beds occupied 

South San Francisco: 90% of ICU beds occupied

San Leandro: 90% of ICU beds occupied

Petaluma: 88% of ICU beds occupied

Martinez: 83% of ICU beds occupied

Fremont: 83% of ICU beds occupied

 Vallejo: 81% of ICU beds occupied 

Castro Valley: 80% of ICU beds occupied

Sonoma County

In Santa Rosa, the largest city in Sonoma County, ICUs are 95% full. Sonoma County did not initially join the five Bay Area counties in adopting the stay-at-home measure, but officials announced Thursday that the county would adopt it starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m.

“Although Sonoma County has fared better until now than other parts of the state in terms of demand on our hospitals, we have been seeing an alarming increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent days, and this is putting increased strain on our medical resources,” county health officer Dr. Sundari Mase said in a news release. “We feel we have no choice but to join the other Bay Area counties in preemptively adopting the governor’s Stay-Home order.”

Mase noted that hospitalizations in Sonoma are near the county’s highest ever, and that coronavirus case rates are at their highest since the pandemic began. “We also are seeing a wider geographic spread of infection,” Mase said. She tied the increases to the surge in cases across the nation as well as large gatherings in the county, including over Halloween and Thanksgiving.

At a community briefing on Wednesday, the most recent ICU available capacity was reported at 11.6% in Sonoma County. ICU beds occupied in Sonoma are at 57%, Healdsburg is at 20% and Petaluma stands at 88%. The county removed hospital capacity data from its website, and the Press Democrat reported that officials are working with the state to fix discrepancies between the county and state websites.

MOST IMPACTED CALIFORNIA

Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Huntington Beach (Orange County): 100% of ICU beds occupied

Ventura: 99% of ICU beds occupied

Upland (San Bernardino County): 97% of ICU beds occupied

Chula Vista (San Diego County): 97% of ICU beds occupied

Oxnard (Ventura County): 96% of ICU beds occupied

Victorville (San Bernardino County): 95% of ICU beds occupied

Thousand Oaks (Ventura County): 95% of ICU beds occupied

Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied

Fresno: 95% of ICU beds occupied

Lynwood (Los Angeles County): 95% of ICU beds occupied

Northridge (Los Angeles County): 95% of ICU beds occupied

Arcadia (Los Angeles County): 94% of ICU beds occupied

Redlands (San Bernardino County): 94% of ICU beds occupied

Fontana (San Bernardino County): 93% of ICU beds occupied

Redding: 91% of ICU beds occupied

Huntington Beach

In California, all of Huntington Beach’s 11 ICU beds are occupied. The Orange County city of fewer than 200,000 has made headlines as a gathering place for locals to demonstrate their resistance to mask orders and other pandemic restriction-enforcement measures.

Ventura County

In Ventura County, the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo are all at more than 95% ICU capacity. The county is grouped in the Southern California region, which is under the regional stay-at-home order. County supervisors have unanimously voted to propose a new region that would include Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, which have much higher available ICU capacity and therefore likely could remove restrictions on businesses sooner.

MOST IMPACTED U.S.

Albuquerque, N.M.: 116% of ICU beds occupied

Baton Rouge, La.: 109% of ICU beds occupied

Ogden, Utah: 107% of ICU beds occupied

Upland, Pa.: 106% of ICU beds occupied

Easton, Pa.: 104% of ICU beds occupied

Abington, Pa.: 102% of ICU beds occupied)

Pompano Beach, Fla.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Port St. Lucie, Fla.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Dothan, Ala.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Douglasville, Ga.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Wailuku, Hawaii: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Chicago Heights, Ill.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Leonardtown, Md.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

St. Joseph, Mo.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

St. Cloud, Minn.: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Albuquerque

The hospital service area that includes Albuquerque shows the highest ICU occupancy in the nation at 116%. In mid-November, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tightened restrictions statewide in hopes of reducing the virus spread, but that wasn’t enough. On Nov. 20, a backup hospital in Albuquerque was opened to relieve the strain. Now hospitals are reaching surge capacity at nearly 1,000 hospitalizations daily. Officials are preparing to ration care to coronavirus patients, with the only criterion being whether a person is likely to survive.

TOP LARGEST LOCATIONS IN THE BAY AREA GROUP

San Francisco: 72% of ICU beds occupied

Oakland: 62% of ICU beds occupied

Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied

San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied

Greenbrae: 59% of ICU beds occupied

Napa: 45% of ICU beds occupied

Vallejo: 81% of ICU beds occupied

Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied

Concord: 78% of ICU beds occupied

Salinas: 61% of ICU beds occupied

Santa Cruz: 76% of ICU beds occupied

TOP LARGEST CALIFORNIA CITIES

Los Angeles: 80% of ICU beds occupied

San Diego: 65% of ICU beds occupied

San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied

San Francisco: 72% of ICU beds occupied

Fresno: 95% of ICU beds occupied

Sacramento: 83% of ICU beds occupied

Long Beach: 51% of ICU beds occupied

Oakland: 62% of ICU beds occupied

Bakersfield: 75% of ICU beds occupied

Anaheim: 87% of ICU beds occupied

Santa Ana: 37% of ICU beds occupied

Riverside: 88% of ICU beds occupied

Stockton: 90% of ICU beds occupied

Irvine: No ICU data reported from local hospitals

Chula Vista: 97% of ICU beds occupied

Chula VIsta

Chula Vista, in San Diego County, has the highest percentage of ICU beds occupied at 97%. San Diego County’s hospitals have seen a crush of coronavirus admissions since late November, and some facilities have reported that they are already utilizing surge beds, concerned about an increase of cases due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

TOP LARGEST U.S. CITIES

New York City: 78% of ICU beds occupied

Los Angeles: 80% of ICU beds occupied

Chicago: 65% of ICU beds occupied

Houston: 91% of ICU beds occupied

Phoenix: 64% of ICU beds occupied

Philadelphia: 84% of ICU beds occupied

San Antonio: 91% of ICU beds occupied

San Diego: 65% of ICU beds occupied

Dallas: 93% of ICU beds occupied

San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied

Austin, Texas: 85% of ICU beds occupied

Jacksonville, Fla.: 79% of ICU beds occupied

Fort Worth, Texas: 92% of ICU beds occupied

Columbus, Ohio: 83% of ICU beds occupied

Charlotte, N.C.: 81% of ICU beds occupied

Texas

Dallas has the lowest ICU capacity on this list, with just 7% of ICU beds available. Dallas County recently reported the second-highest daily death toll in the pandemic, and the county had to lower business capacity from 75% to 50% on Dec. 3 after going over the 15% ICU capacity threshold.

Fort Worth, in Texas’ Tarrant County, follows closely behind with 92% of ICU beds occupied. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office is near storage capacity for bodies, so two refrigerated trucks have been brought in and are expected to be used soon.