Hospitals in Santa Barbara County are preparing to implement ‘crisis care’ as COVID-19 hospitals break records daily.
Crisis care means that people with urgent health care needs outside COVID-19 may not receive the care they would normally expect, according to Dr Henning Ansorg, provincial health official.
“For example, if someone is suffering from a cerebral haemorrhage and can be rescued by an expert performing a procedure, it may no longer be possible or available simply because the hospitals are overbooked with COVID patients,” Ansorg said on Tuesday during the press release from COVID-19 said. .
With a record 172 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital as of Tuesday, 75% of hospital beds in the entire province were in use.
Of the COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital, 55 require intensive care, and 66.3% of the ICU beds in the province are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported for the first time a “modified” ICU availability, a level that the Southern California region has maintained for nearly three weeks. The actual ICU availability in the country is 8.4%.
Provincial hospitals added with ICU beds and they had to start using training beds a few days ago, said Van Do-Reynoso, director of public health. According to the province’s community data dashboard, there were 12 folding beds in use as of Tuesday.
‘In light of our current situation, I am lost. I honestly do not know what to say anymore, ”said Ansorg, very upset that many people do not follow public health orders to avoid gatherings and travel to reduce the spread of the very contagious disease.
Do-Reynoso also gave an update on the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in the province and reported that 54% of the 16,775 vaccines granted to the country have already been administered to people eligible for the first phase .
In addition, Santa Barbara County Public Health has received approval from the California Department of Public Health to continue vaccinating all three levels in Phase 1A, speeding up the process. This includes most health workers, staff and residents at skilled nursing homes, emergency medical services and dialysis staff.
Public Health has approved 42 providers to distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses, and the providers are acting and working through logistics, Do-Reynoso said.
The province expects to triple the number of providers distributing the vaccine within the next few weeks and, by the beginning of February, will generally vaccinate around 1,000 people a day.
According to Do-Reynoso, the vaccine is likely to be available to the general public by the end of March or April.
Public health officials also reported 341 new COVID-19 cases and seven additional deaths on Tuesday. All of those who died were over the age of 70, and four deaths were related to outbreaks at municipal housing facilities, according to Public Health.
Two individuals lived in Santa Barbara, two lived in Santa Maria, one was from Goleta, one lived in the uninformed area of Goleta and one was from the Santa Ynez Valley.
The province’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began is 173.
The number of cases still considered contagious across the province exceeded 2,000 and was 2,105 on Tuesday. There have been 19,019 confirmed cases in Santa Barbara County since the pandemic began.
The testing of positivity rates and daily cases also reach record highs. The province shows a positive rate of seven days with 17.3%.
| Santa Barbara County | December 15 | December 22 | December 29 | January 5 |
| New positive cases were reported last week | 1 268 | 1 445 | 1,541 | 2 320 |
| New cases among health workers in the previous week | 54 | 84 | 72 | 50 |
| Total test results reported in the previous week | 17,532 | 18 243 | 15 753 | 12,681 |
| COVID-19 positive hospital patients | 78 | 103 | 127 | 172 |
| Active cases (still contagious after testing positive) | 1 059 | 1 245 | 1 227 | 2 105 |
| Cumulative deaths associated with COVID-19 | 140 | 150 | 156 | 173 |
“All of these statistics are at the highest level they have been since it started last March,” Do-Reynoso said.
The province is only now beginning to see the full consequences of the COVID-19 transfer during the Thanksgiving holiday, Ansorg said, and the consequences of the trip and gathering of Christmas will be clear in the coming weeks.
In addition, 28 business outbreaks and 48 community care outbreaks were reported in the province in December, Do-Reynoso said.
The outbreaks of business have occurred in various industries including agriculture, administration, retail, manufacturing, medical healthcare, cleaning services, skilled labor, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, hotels and construction.
“I can not stress enough that this is really a call to every member of our community,” Do-Reynoso said. “Together we can improve, and we must.”
The provincial briefings are now practically conducted, and public officials and provincial officials appear via a video conference.
The Tuesday briefing can be viewed here on the Santa Barbara County Youtube page, with English and Spanish versions.
– Author Jade Martinez-Pogue of Noozhawk staff can be reached (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Get in touch with Noozhawk on Facebook.