The outlook for California coronavirus worsened over the holiday weekend as hospitalizations continued to rise and more counties were added on Sunday to Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 watch list, which is now at its highest level since the pandemic began.
The rate at which tests of coronavirus in California return positive has increased by 42% in the past two weeks, according to data published in the Los Angeles Times California Coronavirus Tracker. An increasing rate of positive results is an indication that disease transmission is worsening.
Fourth of July marked the fifteenth consecutive day that California recorded a record number of hospitalizations of confirmed coronavirus patients. On Saturday, the state registered 5,669 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections in California hospitals, a 62% increase in the previous two weeks.
On June 27, just a week earlier, the state had reported 4,498 hospitalized patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19. On June 20, the number was 3,494.
The number of intensive care unit patients statewide with confirmed coronavirus infections has increased 63% in the past three weeks. On Saturday, there were 1,711 people with confirmed coronavirus infections in the ICU; the previous Saturday, there were 1,376; the week before that, there were 1,149; and on June 13, there were 1,049.
And Los Angeles County officials said Sunday that the holiday weekend saw the highest number of new cases in a single day since the pandemic began. More than 3,200 new cases were reported in the county on Friday.
Contra Costa County, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and rural Colusa County, northwest of Sacramento, were added to the list of regions being monitored on Sunday for their increase in the number of cases and the increase in hospitalizations, bringing the number to 24. Marin, Monterey and San Diego counties joined the list on Thursday.
People at Ocean Beach, San Francisco on July 5. Californians seemed to heed more warnings to stay away from beaches and other public spaces during the long weekend.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
On Sunday, San Diego County health officials reported 562 new cases of COVID-19, about 7 percent of the 8,095 tests recorded. The county’s percentage of COVID-19 positive tests compared to all tests continues to increase, reaching 5.6 percent. There were 445 people reported hospitalized on Sunday, with 167 in the ICU.
In many areas, the jump in cases is attributed to more people leaving their homes to go to work or to seek services and an increase in family and community gatherings, characteristics of the summer and growing concern as the pandemic continues. Marin County, by state, has an additional problem; An outbreak at San Quentin State Prison has infected nearly a third of inmates.
On Sunday, Marin County officials announced that restaurant interior dining rooms would again be required to close their doors, ending a small table service window and menus to hold in hand. Restaurant canteens in the area had only been open for a week since the state’s refuge order was established in mid-March. The current ban will last at least 21 days.
Nationally, the image is also grim. The former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on CBS ‘”Face the Nation” program Sunday that “we are back at the highest point of the epidemic during the New York outbreak.”
But Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served for two years during the Trump administration, said there is now a big difference: “We really had a propagation epicenter when New York was going through difficulties.” Now we really have four great propagation epicenters: Los Angeles, Texas cities, Florida cities and Arizona. “
Gottlieb also added that the nation may run out of supply of remdesivir, a key drug used for the sickest patients of COVID-19.
“That drug has a long manufacturing cycle,” he said. “It is unlikely that we will be able to increase supply between now and the end of the year.”
And he warned that there is no relief in sight, that the fall will be “difficult”, that “it is not clear that it will improve.”
“We are going to have epidemics that come and go across the country in different cities,” said Gottlieb. “They will light up at different times. But we are not going to be able to really crush this virus right now because there is so much infection around. “
Southern California is a good example.
Hospitalizations of patients with confirmed coronavirus infections in Los Angeles County have increased nearly 50% in the past three weeks on Saturday, there were 1,921 patients in Los Angeles County hospitals with confirmed coronavirus infections; seven days earlier, there were 1,710; the week before that, there were 1,453; and the week before that, there were 1,285.
Customers wait in line for lunch at the Rose restaurant in Venice.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Just days before the holiday weekend began, Los Angeles County officials warned of “alarming increases in cases, positivity and hospitalization rates ”and projected the possibility of running out of hospital beds in two or three weeks; The number of ICU beds could run out sometime in July.
In a memorandum issued Saturday to local healthcare providers, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warned that “if the trajectory continues, the number of beds in ICU, our most limited resource, is likely to become inadequate in the near future. ”
In a July 1 update on the San Bernardino County website, authorities said the county reported 753 new cases on June 30, “the highest number of cases reported in a single day.” On July 4, the county recorded 1,024 new cases. The hospital said COVID-19-related hospitalizations and ICU bed use “have seen a steady increase since June 17.”
In Orange County, hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased 72% in the past two weeks. On Saturday, there were 624 people hospitalized in Orange County with confirmed coronavirus infections; the previous Saturday, 492 were hospitalized; and the previous Saturday, 363 were in the hospital.
Hospitalizations for coronavirus in Ventura County increased 74% in the past two weeks. On Saturday, 82 people were in the hospital with confirmed coronavirus infections; the previous Saturday, there were 65, and the previous Saturday, there were 47.
Riverside County has reported a 63% increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past three weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times coronavirus tracker: 485 new cases on July 4; 340 on June 27; 297 on June 20.
Riverside County public information officer Brooke Federico said Sunday that the region’s licensed intensive care units are 97.4% full, “a high number.” But only 71% of the county’s licensed hospital beds are currently in use, he said, and only 13% of those beds have confirmed COVID-19 patients.
“Our hospitals have a great capacity to treat people in facilities above and beyond the authorized capacity,” he said. “That is what we have been preparing for.”
Imperial County, where there is a severe shortage of doctors and a quarter of the population lives in poverty, is a different story.
During a June 26 briefing, Newsom highlighted Imperial County as the area most affected by coronavirus in the entire state. For every 100,000 people in the county, which borders Arizona and Mexico, more than 3,800 have been infected with the coronavirus. Statewide, about 650 per 100,000 people have been infected.
The only two hospitals in Imperial County, El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneer Health Center in Brawley, have been invaded. In the past five weeks, Imperial County has transferred more than 500 coronavirus patients to other counties for treatment, an average of 15 to 17 people per day, Newsom said.
Part of the overflow has been attributed to an unusually high number of hospital admissions linked to cross-border traffic from Mexicali. Newsom said the state is “working with Customs and Borders [Protection] for problems “related to the border in Mexicali and Calexico.
Hospitals don’t disclose where their patients come from, but they do routinely treat cross-border travelers, said Karina Lopez, public affairs liaison at the Pioneers Health Center. Imperial County’s population is 85% Latino, and many residents are recent migrant farmers or immigrants.
In determining which patients to care for, Lopez said, Pioneers Health Center does not consider a patient’s residence. But although the hospital has filled only 68 of its 107 acute care beds, it has rejected some patients.
“The main concern for us was that we do not have enough acute care nurses to care for inpatients,” said Lopez. “While we have beds for them, and we have room for them, we don’t have enough staff.”
