San Diego County again set a record on Friday with the latest daily coronavirus total reaching 4,550. That’s 72 more than the previous record set on New Year’s Eve.
The twin peaks, six and eight days after a major holiday, seem to confirm the concerns expressed by epidemiologists, public health experts and health care leaders during December: ‘getting too close during the holidays’ a huge cost new year.
“We expected the cases to increase after the holidays, and they did,” he said. Wilma Wooten, director of the country’s health department, said in a statement. ‘We need to do a better job according to public health guidelines, especially now that the more contagious variant of COVID-19 is in our communities.
“San Diegans should not meet with people outside their household and should stay at home as much as possible.”
Formally named B.1.1.7., The new variant to which Wooten refers still shows a presence in the region, and it has been confirmed that it is the cause of 28 local coronavirus cases and the presumed cause of another 13. Genetic sequencing is necessary to to confirm the variant, often called ‘UK strain’, which adds a delay before the true viral version is known.
The biggest concern is still what so many new cases – the single day that has now surpassed the 30,000 points since December 30 three times – will do to local hospital admissions.
Hospitals have been scrambling for the past few weeks to convert spaces not previously used for critical care into patients in need of critical care. They adopt team nursing approaches that often deviate from previous nurse to patient relationships designed to ensure quality care.
Although work has so far prevented the region from running out of ICU beds, the latest provincial report shows that there were only 44 crew members and were available immediately from Thursday, the most recent day for which data was available.