KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Southern California region intensive care unit (ICU) capacity has dropped to 0% Thursday amid a record-breaking COVID-19 surge across the state.
On Thursday, the California Department of Public Health announced that the ICU capacity for the Southern California region is now 0%, down from 0.5% the day before.
“You hear we’re at 0%. That doesn’t mean we have no ICU beds or staff available at all. It means we’re into a surge,” Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday, referring to the first region to reach 0% capacity, the San Joaquin Valley.
This comes at the heels of the most-ever cases recorded in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, with 22,422 coronavirus cases along with 138 deaths, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
“I want to acknowledge that we’re experiencing an explosive and very deadly surge and there’s urgency in our request that everyone does all that’s in their power to slow transmission and prevent additional suffering,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of public health on Wednesday.
At the beginning of December, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a regional stay-at-home order, dividing the state into five regions.
The Southern California region includes Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
When first reported on Dec. 3, the Southern California ICU capacity was about 20%, dropping below the 15% threshold a few days later, prompting the state’s stay-at-home order.
By Dec, 9 the SoCal ICU capacity dropped to 9% later dipping to 6.2% by Dec. 11.
By Saturday. the ICU capacity available further declined to 5.3%, with a spike down on Monday to 2.7% and 1.7% on Tuesday.
Within the Santa Clarita Valley, the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has been steadily rising since the beginning of November. As recently as Wednesday, a total of 82 COVID-19 patients were being treated at Henry Mayo, representing the highest such number since the beginning of the pandemic.
See Related: Southern California ICU Capacity Drops To 0.5% As Henry Mayo Faces Staffing Shortage
“We are definitely struggling to adequately staff all of the intensive care patients,” said Patrick Moody, spokesperson for the hospital.
While Moody said that he “would love to give you an exact number” regarding the hospital’s ICU capacity, the fluid nature of their staffing situation makes it “extremely difficult” to provide such a definitive metric.
“Our constraint is not the number of beds, our constraint is staffing,” Moody said. “We don’t really have a bed figure because the staffing situation is very fluid. We are not at capacity now, but it’s a constant effort to make sure we’re adequately staffed with enough intensive care nurses.”
Across Los Angeles County, there were 4,656 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, 21 percent of which are in the ICU, according to the Public Health.
Because L.A. County is in the Southern California region, the Los Angeles County Health Officer Order has been modified to fully align with additional safety measures across sectors and the required effective date.
The order prohibits private gatherings of any size, closes sector operations except for critical infrastructure and retail, and requires 100 percent masking and physical distancing in all others, according to the governor’s office.
Outdoor services for places of worship and outdoor protests are still permitted within the order, as long as social distancing and masking protocols are followed.
The order is set to remain in effect for at least three weeks and, after that period, will not be lifted until the region’s projected ICU capacity meets or exceeds 15 percent.
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……….and yet, still, the mall is PACKED, the streets full of traffic, and there’s a ‘stay at home ‘ order?! LOL! What a JOKE! SO MANY people not wearing masks, everyone’s ignoring it all, and then when they see how many newly infected, how many that are dying, nobody really gives a damn! Pretty SAD innit? They wonder why! ??
We had a lock down in the beginning of COVID. Now we are at the holidays. We need to in total lock down, but essentials. The numbers are higher than the beginning, and there will be many people going to holidays to catch COVID and spread it along the way to the family. COME ON PEOPLE! THINK!!!! The vaccine is NOT a cure especially since everyone can’t take it. I just can’t believe Americans have become so selfish, and it sure is not appearing that it’s just young people. WAKE UP!!!!
Some will cry, “Conspiracy theorist!!” but these are my thoughts….
For the number of cases to spring up out of control in the manner that it has, perhaps there’s been a ‘release’ of another strain. This spike goes beyond the normal ‘mutations’ that viruses go through.
Just sayin’…
In the UK, right NOW, that is exactly what has happened. Supposed to be even MORE contageous then this one but just as deadly! Check it out! They’re mulling over it now! ?