Category Archives: California

California, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Hospitalizations, ICU, Intensive Care Units (ICUs), San Francisco Bay Area, Solano County CA, Stay-at-home

DAILY UPDATE link for California ICU bed availability BY REGION

By Roger Straw, December 5, 2020, updated Dec 7, 2020

The State of California is now posting a readily available DAILY UPDATE on California’s REGIONAL ICU hospital bed availability.  This is super important as a 15% level is the trigger for the state’s Dec. 3 Stay At Home Order.  Save this link for future use: https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/.  (You will need to scroll down to “Regional Stay Home Order”).

Below is the most current data from covid19.ca.gov:

EARLIER VERSION FOR COMPARISON:  Below you will find the map and the listing from December 5:

SAHO ICU bed % available as of December 5, 2020 for the 5 regions:

Northern California 24.1%
Bay Area 21.7%
Greater Sacramento 21.4%
San Joaquin Valley 8.6%
Southern California 12.5%

BenIndy NOTES

SAHO is short for Stay At Home Order.

I will try to find out and post here the usual time of day when the numbers are updated.  Stay tuned.

 

California, Coronavirus, Covid 19

NY Times: California is experiencing the largest surge since the beginning of the pandemic

California reeling

Perhaps no state has faced more ups and downs during the pandemic than California.
New Cases in California, The New York Times
New York Times Coronavirus Briefing, December 1, 2020

In the spring, California had some of the earliest outbreaks and was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order. By summer, many Californians thought the worst was behind them, only to see an explosion of cases at the end of June. The number of infections dropped, then plateaued, before skyrocketing again this fall.

Now California is experiencing the largest surge since the beginning of the pandemic with an average of nearly 15,000 new cases a day.

Despite already having some of the most restrictive virus measures in the country, Gov. Gavin Newsom said yesterday that the state might have to take “drastic action” to slow the spread of the virus, including full stay-at-home orders, which could come within the next couple of days.

Already, 99 percent of residents are living under an overnight curfew that bars them from leaving their homes for nonessential trips after 10 p.m. Los Angeles recently went further and banned gatherings with other households, while a ban on contact sports in Santa Clara County has forced the San Francisco 49ers to play home games in Arizona.

Still, the numbers continue to soar. Governor Newsom warned that with so many sick patients, intensive care units could be overloaded by the middle of December, and its hospitals could be dangerously close to full by Christmas. The state is also facing a shortage of nurses.

As my colleagues Thomas Fuller and Manny Fernandez report, despite its size and economic power, California has one of the nation’s lowest number of hospital beds relative to its population, with just 1.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people. California has one-third the number of beds per capita of, for example, Poland, and only two states have fewer beds for residents, Washington and Oregon.
With the pandemic raging across the country, California may not be able to rely on other states for its disaster planning, as it did when thousands of firefighters traveled to put out its mega-fires.

“You have to think of this as a natural disaster, like an earthquake — there’s a lot of need for hospitalization,” said George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “But the difference here is that it’s happening across the country. We can’t send people to Reno, Phoenix or Tucson. We’re stuck.”

California, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA

COVID19 hospitalizations – daily update for Solano County

COVID19.CA.GOV offers the best up to date information on the coronavirus in Solano County, in most respects even better than the daily update by the Solano County Public Health Department.  (Case count by city is only available on the Solano County COVID19 Dashboard.)

The hospitalization details below are current as of now, and will be automatically updated here on the Benicia Independent with each new day’s report from CA.GOV.

Hover your mouse over items to see detailed data, including numbers on a given date.

California, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Solano County back to COVID-19 Purple Tier – Governor Newsom details

Governor Newsom Announces New Immediate Actions to Curb COVID-19 Transmission

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Press Release, Nov 16, 2020

New actions include pulling an emergency brake in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and strengthening face covering mandate
Vast majority of counties in the most restrictive tier starting tomorrow

SACRAMENTO – As COVID-19 cases sharply increase across the country and California, Governor Gavin Newsom and state public health officials announced immediate actions today to slow the spread of the virus. The state is pulling an emergency brake in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy resulting in 94.1 percent of California’s population in the most restrictive tier. This change is effective tomorrow. The state will reassess data continuously and move more counties back if necessary. California is also strengthening its face covering guidance to require individuals to wear a mask whenever outside their home, with limited exceptions.

“We are sounding the alarm,” said Governor Newsom. “California is experiencing the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet –faster than what we experienced at the outset of the pandemic or even this summer. The spread of COVID-19, if left unchecked, could quickly overwhelm our health care system and lead to catastrophic outcomes. That is why we are pulling an emergency brake in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Now is the time to do all we can – government at all levels and Californians across the state – to flatten the curve again as we have done before.”

The rate of growth in confirmed COVID-19 cases is faster than it was in July, which led to a significant peak in cases. This requires a swift public health response and action from all Californians to slow the spread of the virus. Immediate action will help protect individuals at higher risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 and will help keep the state’s health care delivery system from becoming overwhelmed.

“The data we are seeing is very concerning. We are in the midst of a surge, and time is of the essence. Every day matters and every decision matters,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “Personal decisions are critical, and I am I imploring every Californian to stay home if they can, wear a mask whenever they leave their homes, limit mixing, practice physical distancing and wash their hands.”

The 28 counties moving back into Tier 1 (Purple / Widespread) include:

 

Alameda Napa Santa Cruz
Butte Nevada Siskiyou
Contra Costa Orange
Solano
El Dorado Placer Sutter
Fresno San Benito Trinity
Glenn San Joaquin Tuolumne
Kern San Luis Obispo Ventura
Kings Santa Barbara Yolo
Mendocino Santa Clara Yuba
Merced
The nine counties moving back into Tier 2 (Red / Substantial) include:
Colusa Marin Plumas
Del Norte Modoc San Francisco
Humboldt Mono San Mateo
The two counties moving back into Tier 3 (Orange / Moderate) include:
Calaveras Sierra

Today’s action will remain in effect until the State Public Health Officer determines it is appropriate to make modifications based on public health conditions and data.

California has taken steps to prepare the state for an increase in COVID-19 cases. The state has developed additional testing capacity to allow cases to be quickly identified, recently opening a new laboratory in Valencia that is already processing thousands of tests a day. The state is averaging 164,345 tests over the last seven days.

The state has been working in partnership with hospitals, clinics and physicians on the COVID-19 response. To support California’s health care delivery system, the state has an additional 1,872 beds available at alternate care sites outside of the system that can be made available quickly if needed to respond to a surge in cases.

California will continue to update the Blueprint for a Safer Economy based on the best available public health data and science. For more information about the Blueprint and what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19, visit covid19.ca.gov.

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