Coronavirus updates: 200 hospitalized in Sacramento County for first time since August
California’s coronavirus surge continues to intensify, and the impact on hospitals is becoming more severe by the day. The state has suffered a net increase of 1,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in just the past week.
The California Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 4,309 people with lab-confirmed cases in hospital beds, the state’s highest total since Aug. 25.
The capital region is among the hardest hit. Sacramento County on Wednesday exceeded 200 hospitalized with coronavirus for the first time in nearly three months, state data show. Placer County extended on its record high, with its total growing to 74 in hospital beds.
Intensive care unit capacity is the primary concern for hospital systems. Out of all hospitalized with coronavirus in California, 1,148 were in ICUs.
The state on Wednesday fell below 2,000 available, staffed ICU beds for the first time since July. About 1,970 remain available, but ICU cases are continuing to grow at an alarming rate. In two weeks, the concurrent ICU total for COVID-19 has increased by nearly 370 patients, a 47% statewide spike.
Hospitalization rates have shown no sign yet of slowing down. On the contrary, both ICU and overall hospital bed totals for patients with COVID-19 appear to be ratcheting up. The latter increased by a net of 266 between Monday and Tuesday’s updates and 191 between Tuesday and Wednesday. Only a handful of days from the peak of California’s summer surge saw bigger one-day jumps.
What’s even more troubling is that increases in hospitalizations typically lag behind spikes of new cases by a couple of weeks. In keeping with that trend, California’s surge in infections started about a month ago, in mid-October, and hospital totals started to elevate around late October.
And California’s curve for new infections has grown even steeper since the end of October. The state was reporting a two-week average of about 4,300 daily cases as of Nov. 1. The state has now reached an average of nearly 7,700 new cases per day, with 9,800 added Wednesday. It’s the highest two-week average for the state since Aug. 22.
In other words, if the correlating link between new cases and hospitalizations holds true, the surge in patient admissions is on track to grow even more substantial through early December and perhaps beyond.
State and local health officials have attributed the recent surge primarily to private gatherings in which people have become too lax around friends and family members in social distancing and face covering protocols. They also pointed to Halloween celebrations as problematic, and many are now frantically warning people not to hold multi-household Thanksgiving gatherings.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials also announced Monday that they were pulling the “emergency brake,” widely rolling back business openings in the vast majority of California as an urgent measure to combat the erupting spread of new cases before it overwhelms the health care system.
Now, more than 94% of the state by population is in the strictest “purple” tier, which denotes “widespread” COVID-19 activity, and means things like restaurant dining, church worship, gyms and movie theaters must close, or stay closed, for indoor activity.
“Every day matters and every decision matters,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a statement. “Personal decisions are critical, and I am imploring every Californian to stay home if they can, wear a mask whenever they leave their homes, limit mixing, practice physical distancing and wash their hands.”
The explosion of coronavirus hospitalizations is remarkably widespread, not centralized to any one part of the state, as Newsom alluded to in a Monday news conference.
About 96% of the state’s hospital total as of Tuesday came from the top 25 counties, each of which had at least 20 COVID-19 patients, CDPH data show.
Of those counties, 22 of the 25 have had their hospitalization figure grow more than 40% between Nov. 1 and Tuesday’s update. Two of them — Imperial and San Mateo — had it grow about 30%. Only San Francisco, an urban center that has been lauded by health experts for its pandemic response, has had a negligible increase this month, a net increase of just one patient.
Seven of the hardest-hit counties — Butte, Kings, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Shasta — have had their total more than double since the start of November, the latest CDPH data from Tuesday show.
One small upside is that health care workers entered the autumn surge with more experience and knowledge about the novel disease than they did in the earlier months of the pandemic. Doctors and nurses know now about techniques like placing patients on their stomachs to help with breathing.
Nearly 1.05 million Californians have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 18,360 have died of the disease, CDPH said Wednesday morning. The state officially surpassed 1 million cases on Saturday.
Test positivity rate as a 14-day average has climbed to 4.8%, up from 3.2% in the last two weeks. In the past week, 5.3% of diagnostic tests have returned positive in California. These trends indicate that true spread of the virus is rapidly increasing; the surging case rates are not simply a result of heightened testing capacity.
Capital region: 200 hospitalized in Sacramento County
The six-county Sacramento region has combined for at least 699 COVID-19 deaths and more than 47,000 total confirmed cases during the ongoing health crisis, which has now impacted California for more than eight months.
All six counties are in the purple tier after Monday’s emergency demotions by the state.
Sacramento County has recorded 31,852 lab-positive coronavirus cases and 536 resident deaths from the virus. The county added 465 new cases on Wednesday, which was the third-highest daily total of the pandemic. The two biggest increases, of 484 and 496, came last week.
Hospitalizations continue to surge, hitting 208 on Wednesday after net increases of 19 on Tuesday and 17 on Wednesday, state data show. The county surpassed 200 hospitalized for the first time since late August. The county now has 47 patients in ICUs, one fewer than on Tuesday.
The city of Sacramento stands on the brink of 300 coronavirus deaths, increasing to 299 with Wednesday’s update.
The county on Wednesday estimated that a little over 5,300 cases are currently active, with the remainder denoted either as dead or “likely recovered.” Though the latter term makes the active case total a rough estimate, it’s the first time Sacramento has surpassed 5,000 active cases. In the summer, this figure peaked at a little over 3,600.
Given the county’s population of about 1.5 million, 5,300 active cases works out to about one in every 283 residents being sick from the virus.
County health officials have confirmed 18 deaths for the first two weeks of November. The county’s October death toll stands at 54.
Yolo County has reported 3,933 total infections and 71 deaths from COVID-19, reporting seven deaths since last Thursday, including one Wednesday. The county added 41 cases Wednesday.
Yolo has 14 patients in hospitals with COVID-19 with seven in ICUs as of Wednesday, the same overall total and an ICU drop of one compared to Tuesday.
Placer County has reported 5,543 cases during the pandemic, adding 54 cases Wednesday following 92 on Tuesday.
Placer reported one death Monday and another Wednesday for a total of 65. The county has reported six fatalities since Thursday.
Placer is amid a massive spike in hospitalized cases: The county says it has 76 patients in hospital beds with confirmed coronavirus as of Tuesday, with 72 of them (95%) in hospitals specifically “because of COVID.” Both are all-time highs for the county, already past the summer surge. The county says 10 are now in ICUs, nine of them being treated specifically for the disease.
State data as of Wednesday showed 74 hospitalized and eight in ICUs in Placer County. Placer had just 34 hospitalized with the disease on Nov. 6.
El Dorado County is one of a few California counties with a single-digit death toll, with just four fatalities since the start of the pandemic.
But on Tuesday, El Dorado smashed a new daily case record, breaking it for the third time in under a week. Health officials reported 97 new cases Tuesday, breaking Friday’s record of 37, which broke Thursday’s of 32. The county also reported 64 cases for the period of Saturday through Monday. Adding 49 cases Wednesday, the county has now reported 1,847 since the start of the pandemic.
El Dorado has five hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday, all in ICUs, the same as Tuesday.
Sutter County health officials have reported a total of 2,521 people positive for coronavirus and 13 deaths. The county added 80 new cases Monday, a new daily record, and one fatality. The health office reported 65 more Wednesday.
The past six days, Friday to Wednesday, have marked Sutter County’s six highest daily infection totals of the pandemic.
Fourteen people infected with COVID-19 were hospitalized as of Wednesday, including three in intensive care, according to county health officials. The hospitalization total has nearly tripled from the five reported Friday.
Yuba County officials have reported a total of 1,665 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths. The county reported 21 new infections Wednesday. Yuba had eight patients infected with COVID-19 hospitalized, with one in an ICU, as of Wednesday.
US surpasses a quarter-million deaths
The global death toll for coronavirus is marching toward 1.35 million. The United States continues to make up close to one-fifth of that total, with over 250,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. also accounts for about a fifth of the worldwide infection total, at just under 11.5 million of 56.1 million, according to Johns Hopkins. The nation added nearly 162,000 cases Tuesday as its massive third surge continues.
After the U.S. by death toll are Brazil at nearly 167,000, India at about 131,000, Mexico at 99,000 and the United Kingdom at over 53,000. Italy has reported more than 47,000 fatalities, France is at over 46,000 deaths, Iran is closing in on 43,000 and Spain is over 42,000.
Three South American nations are after that, with Argentina, Peru and Colombia each reporting between about 34,000 and 36,000 deaths. Another 34,000 have died in Russia, according to Johns Hopkins, and South Africa recently surpassed 20,000.
By infections, 10 countries aside from the U.S. have reported more than 1 million cases. India is approaching 9 million, Brazil is close to 6 million, France recently surpassed 2 million and Russia is close to 2 million. Over 1.5 million have tested positive in Spain, followed by 1.4 million in the United Kingdom, 1.3 million in Argentina and over 1.2 million in Italy and Colombia. Mexico is the most recent to reach the 1 million mark.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 8:13 AM.
