Hard-hit Solano County finally joins with all other Bay Area Counties – shutdown to begin at midnight Thurs Dec 17
San Francisco Chronicle LIVE UPDATES, by Aidin Vaziri , Vanessa Arredondo , Erin Allday and Rita Beamish, Dec. 16, 2020
Signs posted on the door of the Luscious Salon in Lodi (San Joaquin County) advise customers about the pandemic guidelines. ICU capacity has dropped to zero in the greater San Joaquin Valley region. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
12:06 p.m.Bay Area falls into mandatory shutdown status: The Bay Area region’s intensive care capacity at its hospitals is down to 12.9% capacity. That means the region now must adhere to the state’s stay-home order restrictions as of midnight Thursday. Much of the Bay Area had already taken the step voluntarily. Read the story here.
12:27 p.m. California shutdown grows: Northern California is the state’s only region that now is not under the California mandatory stay-home order that kicks in when a region’s intensive care capacity falls below 15% availability. Aside from the Bay Area, which fell to 12.9% ICU capacity on Wednesday, state data showed other regions’ ICU available capacity at: Sacramento, 14.1%; San Joaquin Valley, 0%; and Southern California, 0.5%, with the Northern California region still having 29.1% ICU capacity. About 40 million people, 98% of the state population, are under the regional order’s restrictions. Statewide, available ICU capacity was 4.1 %.
1:03 p.m. Solano , San Mateo, Napa counties now must go under stay home order: Only three Bay Area counties were not voluntarily adhering to the state’s recent stay-home restrictions. With Wednesday’s intensive care metrics in the region faltering, the order becomes mandatory, including for Solano, San Mateo and Napa Counties.
Sonoma recently joined five other Bay Area counties — San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara — in adopting the regional stay-at-home order before being required to by the state. The Bay Area region was at 15.8% ICU availability as of Tuesday morning, according to the state website, with the order becoming mandatory if that number falls below 15%. The remaining counties — San Mateo, Napa and Solano — remain subject to purple-tier restrictions until the new order is triggered. Check the reopening tracker to see what’s allowed in each tier and each county.
[BenIndy editor: And visit the Tracker for MUCH MORE information….]
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
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.
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.
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