Category Archives: Covid 19

Coronavirus, Covid 19, ICU, Intensive Care Units (ICUs), San Francisco Bay Area, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

ICU Hospital Bed Capacity in Vacaville and Vallejo Among Most Impacted in Bay Area

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

San Francisco Chronicle, by Kellie Hwang, Dec. 11, 2020 
Nurse Waymond Jones (left) Respiratory Therapist Laura Sandoval (center) and nurse Larry Ngiraswei (right) prepare to prone a COVID-19 patient in the ICU at Regional Medical Center of San Jose, an acute-care hospital, on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020 in San Jose, California. Following Thanksgiving there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases all over California and the Bay Area. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

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.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Record high COVID numbers in Solano County on Thursday Dec 10

Highest single-day increase in new positive cases and in total currently active infections…

By Roger Straw, December 10, 2020

I think there’s a little-reported variation on the oft-heard “COVID fatigue.”  It’s COVID NUMBERS fatigue.

I watch the morning news and the evening news, and I can’t begin to count the times I’ve sat through the latest number of cases nationally and in California; the number of hospitalizations and deaths; PPEs and ventilators; the percentage of test rates… and more recently the percentage of available ICU beds by state, region and county….

And more.  Every day.  For months and months now.  I’m even sicker of it than you, given that I’ve reported the numbers in Solano County every day since April 20.  I keep being tempted to write a headline something to the effect of, “Broken Record – Solano numbers going bonkers again and still….”

Fatigue is real, but so is the need to pay attention and take care.

In this time of exploding numbers, NOW through mid-January at the least – please take extra precautions.  Stay home as much as you can, and make plans now for a different kind of Christmas, Hanukah and New Year celebration.  Wear a mask if you must go out, order groceries for pick-up or delivery, don’t stay long anywhere but home, and keep your distance more carefully than ever before.

Here are the Thursday numbers – take note!

[Source: Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard (posted on the County website late today, around 8:45pm).  For a complete archive of County updates, see my Excel ARCHIVE.  ALSO see important daily updates from the state of California at COVID19.CA.GOV, embedded here on the BenIndy at Cases and Deaths AND Hospitalizations AND ICU Beds by REGION.  Sorry, I can’t for the life of me explain the differences between Solano reporting and the State’s reporting….]

Thursday, December 10: 410 (!!) new cases overnight, 1 new death.  Since Feb: 12,533 cases, more than 600 hospitalized, 91 deaths.Compare previous report, Wednesday, Dec. 9:Summary

    • Solano County reported a record 410 (!!) new cases overnight, far and away the highest single-day increase in COVID cases ever in Solano County.  As of today, Solano has seen an average increase of 145 new cases per day over the last 14 days! (source: covid19.ca.gov)  Total of 12,533 cases since the outbreak started.
    • Deaths – 1 new death reported today, someone over 65 years of age, a total of 91 Solano deaths since the pandemic began.
    • Active cases – Solano reported 315 (!!) more active cases today.  New total of 1,553 active cases – another record high for Solano County.  The County has hit a new record high in 5 of the last 7 days!  Active cases are clearly increasing at an alarmingly rate lately – COMPARE: average number of Active Cases during October was 284, average in November was 650 – and TODAY we are at 1,553!  Is the County equipped to contact trace so many infected persons?  Who knows?  To my knowledge, Solano has offered no reports on contact tracing.
    • Hospitalizations – (For COVID19-CA.GOV info, see BenIndy page, COVID-19 Hospitalizations Daily Update for Solano County.)  CAUTION ON COUNTY REPORTING: According to Solano Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas, the County occasionally updates Age Group hospitalizations retroactively, adding substantial numbers.  Thus, many hospitalizations are never reported as CURRENTLY hospitalized.  Today, Solano County reported the number of CURRENTLY hospitalized persons increased by 8, total of 86, but TOTAL hospitalized since the outbreak began supposedly remained unchanged today, a total of 603 of all ages hospitalized since the outbreak began.  The County will likely update these figures at a later date.  [For my manual calculation of total hospitalizations, see age group stats below.]
    • ICU Beds – (For COVID19-CA.GOV info see BenIndy page, COVID-19 Hospitalizations Daily Update for Solano County, and for REGIONAL data see COVID-19 ICU Bed Availability by REGION.)  The County reported no change in ICU beds available today, remaining at 32%, just out of the yellow danger zone.
    • Testing – The County reports today that 1,211 residents were tested overnight, a total of 142,619 unduplicated residents have now been tested for COVID-19 since the outbreak began.  31.9% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.

Positive Test Rate – Sky high again at 15.2%

Solano County reported another high 7-day average positive test rate today of 15.2%, up from yesterday’s 12.8%, far and away over the State’s purple tier threshold of 8%.  Average percent positive test rates are among the best metrics for measuring community spread of the virus.  The much lower and more stable California 7-day average test rate has also been on the rise lately, but held steady today at 10.0%.  (Note that Solano County displays past weeks and months in a 7-day test positivity line graph which also shows daily results.  However, the chart does not display an accurate number of cases for the most recent days, as there is a lag time in receiving test results.  The 7-day curve therefore also lags behind due to unknown recent test results.) 

By Age Group
  • Youth 17 and under – 59 (!!) new cases today, total of 1,426 cases, representing 11.4% of the 12,533 total cases.  No new hospitalizations reported today among this age group.  Thankfully, no deaths have ever been reported in Solano County in this age group.  But cases among Solano youth rose steadily over the summer, from 5.6% of total cases on June 8 to 11% on August 31 and has plateaued at over 11% since September 30.  Youth are 22% of Solano’s general population, so this 11.x% may seem low.  The significance is this: youth are SERIOUSLY NOT IMMUNE (!) – in fact at least 14 of our youth have been hospitalized since the outbreak began.
  • Persons 18-49 years of age – 235 (!!) new cases today, total of 7,344 cases. This age group is 41% of the population in Solano, but represents just under 60% of the total cases, by far the highest percentage of all age groups.  The County reported no new hospitalizations among persons in this age group today.  A total of 194 have been hospitalized since the outbreak began.  No new deaths in this young group today, total of 6 deaths.  Some in this group are surely at high risk, as many are providing essential services among us, and some may be ignoring public health orders.  I expect this group is a major factor in the spread of the virus.
  • Persons 50-64 years of age – 80 (!!) new cases today, total of 2,452 cases.  This age group represents nearly 20% of the 12,533 total cases.  The County reported no new hospitalizations among persons in this age group today.  A total of 162 have been hospitalized since the outbreak began.  No new deaths in this age group today, a total of 16 deaths.
  • Persons 65 years or older – 36 (!) new cases today, total of 1,303, representing 10.4% of Solano’s 12,533 total cases.  The County reported no new hospitalizations among persons in this age group today.  A total of 233 have been hospitalized since the outbreak began.  1 new death was reported in this age group today.  A total of 69 of our elders have died of COVID, accounting for 76% of Solano’s 91 total deaths.
City Data
  • Benicia added 9 (!) new cases today, total of 327 cases since the outbreak began. 
  • Dixon added 31 (!!) new cases today, total of 908 cases.
  • Fairfield added 119 (!!) new cases today, total of 3,722 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 3 new cases today, total of 108 cases.
  • Suisun City added 34 (!!) new cases today, total of 873 cases.
  • Vacaville added 81 (!) new cases today, total of 2,634 cases.
  • Vallejo added 133 (!!) new cases today, total of 3,918 cases.
  • Unincorporated areas remained steady today, total of 43 cases.
Race / Ethnicity

The County report on race / ethnicity includes case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and Solano population statistics.  This information is discouragingly similar to national reports that indicate significantly worse outcomes among black and brown Americans.  Note that all of this data surely undercounts Latinx Americans, as there is a large group of “Multirace / Others” which likely is composed mostly of Latinx members of our communities.

  • Asian Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 10% of cases, 12% of hospitalizations, and 17% of deaths.
  • Black Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 12% of cases, but 16% of hospitalizations, and 22% of deaths.
  • Latinx Americans are 26% of Solano’s population, but account for 22% of cases, 26% of hospitalizations, and 17% of deaths.
  • White Americans are 39% of the population in Solano County, but only account for 27% of cases, 28% of hospitalizations and 33% of deaths.
More…

The County’s Coronavirus Dashboard is full of much more information, too extensive to cover here on a daily basis.  The Benicia Independent will continue to summarize daily and highlight significant portions.  For more, check out the Dashboard at https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67.

CA NOTIFY, Contact tracing, Coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID19.CA.GOV

California Rolls Out a Virus Exposure Alert Tool – Here’s How It Works

CA NOTIFY is available today through Apple iOS and Google Android

NBC Bay Area, By Staff Report, December 10, 2020

California is rolling out a voluntary smartphone tool designed to alert people if they have spent time near someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

The rollout of CA Notify on Thursday comes as the nation’s most populous state grapples with rising cases and hospitalizations nine months after it became the first state to introduce sweeping restrictions due to the pandemic. More than 80 percent of the state’s residents are under orders not to leave their homes for at least the next three weeks except for essential purposes.

Many residents will get a notification Thursday inviting them to participate. The more phones in the system, the better the system will work.

Here’s what to know about the mobile app.

  • The tool doesn’t track people’s identities or locations but uses Bluetooth wireless signals to detect when two phones are within 6 feet of each other for at least 15 minutes, officials said.
  • Californians will be able to activate the tool in their iPhone settings — make sure you’re using version 13.7 or later — or on Android phones by downloading the CA Notify app from the Google Play store.
  • The encounters are temporarily logged in a way that doesn’t reveal a person’s identity or geographic location.
  • If people who have activated the technology test positive for the virus, they get a verification code from the California Department of Public Health and can use that to send an anonymous alert to other participating phone users they might have exposed over the past 14 days.
  •  How quickly you receive the notification depends on when the other person received a positive result and how quickly they consented to activate notifications in CA Notify.
  • Nearly 20 states already have apps based on Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification technology. In California, CA Notify was part of a pilot program at seven University of California campuses.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Testing

Solano County Participants Sought For Stanford Coronavirus Study

“Our main objective is to learn where and how the virus is spreading…and which communities are the most vulnerable.”

Patch, By Maggie Fusek, Dec 9, 2020

Participants from Solano County and across the Bay Area are now sought for the Stanford School of Medicine's CATCH Study.

SOLANO COUNTY, CA — Stanford researchers seek the help of Solano County residents to estimate the true prevalence of the coronavirus across the San Francisco Bay Area’s 8.5 million population.

Another goal of the Community Alliance to Test Coronavirus at Home Study — CATCH— launched by the Stanford University School of Medicine is ultimately to aid in the effort to reopen schools, workplaces and communities, according to a news release.

Participants from Solano County and across the Bay Area are now sought for the CATCH Study.

“We encourage as many Bay Area residents as possible to sign-up for the CATCH Study to help increase our knowledge of a virus that has had significant impacts on our communities,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, one of three Stanford researchers leading the study.

“Our main objective is to learn where and how the virus is spreading —whether people are displaying symptoms or not —and which communities are most vulnerable,” Maldonado said. “These insights will help our scientists and local public officials gain a deeper understanding of the distribution of COVID-19 throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area so that they can stop its spread.”

Maldonado, professor of pediatric infectious diseases and of health research and policy, is leading the study alongside Stanford Medicine researchers Dr. Lorene Nelson, associate professor of health research and policy, and Dr. Stephen Quake, professor of bioengineering and of applied physics and co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

With the effects of COVID-19 disproportionately affecting minority and vulnerable communities throughout the country, and specifically in the Bay Area, one of the key intentions of the study is to address inequities in testing by researching underserved populations.

The study is enabled by the Vera Cloud Testing Platform including its novel Vera Home Test Kit, a gentle nasal swab self-collection kit.

San Francisco Bay Area residents 18 and older are welcome to enroll. Participants are sought in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma, and in the county and city of San Francisco.

Participation in the CATCH study is free and does not require health insurance.

Every participant joins online, reports their symptoms and exposures to COVID-19 daily, and may also be offered a home test kit at no cost upon reporting.

If accepted, within 24 hours a home test kit will be delivered by express courier to their home, where they can self-collect a sample, which is then delivered to the Stanford Health Care laboratory and tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

All tested participants are informed of their results privately and securely online via their personal password-protected account within the CATCH website.

The researchers intend to offer home test kits each day to a portion of all CATCH participants who reported the previous day, carefully selecting participants both with and without symptoms, in order to best represent the Bay Area’s diverse population.

The Vera Cloud Testing Platform and Home Test Kits were created by Stanford in collaboration with several other institutions, including the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Microsoft, and aim to increase testing capacity for COVID-19 at local, state and national levels.

Stanford also intends to make the platform available under non-commercial terms to academic institutions, public health departments, laboratory providers and other organizations interested in offering expansive at-home testing.

The study is funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent, nonprofit medical research center that brings together physicians, scientists and engineers from Stanford University, the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley to drive discovery and encourage collaborative science.

Residents interested in learning more about the CATCH Study and how they can participate can visit https://catchstudy.stanford.edu or call 833-971-2468.