What is California’s hospital capacity amid COVID omicron surge and when should I go?

Only 22% of California’s staffed adult intensive care unit beds are available, with 23.7% of them taken by COVID-19 patients as of Sunday, according to the California Department of Public Health.

California has a total of 1,329 ICU patients with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases — an increase of 73 patients from Sunday’s total. There are 1,765 ICU beds currently available, which is nine more beds than Sunday.

California also has a total of 7,314 total hospitalizations due to COVID-19 — an increase of 9%, or 605 patients, from Sunday.

Unvaccinated people are more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19.

Between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12, unvaccinated people were 14.5 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people, according to the California Department of Health’s vaccination data.

In the greater Sacramento region — which encompasses Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yuba and Yolo — roughly 19% of adult ICU beds are available and 24.5% are taken by COVID-19 patients.

There are currently 52 COVID-19 ICU patients in Sacramento, which is an 18.2% increase from Sunday’s total — with 64 ICU beds still available, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Here’s how other California region ICUs compare, according to the California Department of Public Health’s regional ICU capacity page:

Bay Area | 24.5% of staffed adult ICU beds available

In the Bay Area region — which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solono, Sonoma — 16.2% of the adult ICU bed are taken by COVID-19 patients.

Northern California | 26.2% of staffed adult ICU beds available

In the Northern California region — which includes Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity — 23.3% of the adult ICU beds are taken by COVID-19 patients.

San Joaquin Valley | 18.2% of staffed adult ICU beds available

In the San Joaquin Valley region — which includes Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne — 28.1% of the adult ICU beds are taken by COVID-19 patients.

Southern California | 22.1% of staffed adult ICU beds available

In the Southern California region — which includes Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura — 25.1% of the adult ICU beds are taken by COVID-19 patients.

As of Sunday, no hospital within the state had less than 10% of staffed adult ICU beds available for three consecutive days or zero ICU capacity, which would trigger a regional surge order.

When to go to the hospital

According to the Centers for Disease and Control, seek emergency medical attention immediately if you:

• Have trouble breathing
• Have persistent pain or pressure in your chest
• Experience new confusion
• Cannot stay awake
• Become pale, gray, blue in the skin, lips or nail beds.

This is not a full list of possible symptoms. Please call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.

Before seeking medical attention, call 911 or call ahead to your local emergency facility to notify the operator that you are seeking care for yourself or someone with COVID-19 symptoms.

COVID-19 cases and deaths

California positivity rate is currently 15.9%, according to the official California state government COVID-19 data page.

As of Monday, California confirmed a total of more than 5.1 million COVID-19 cases and roughly 75,800 deaths since the pandemic began— 56,367 of those were new cases and 109 new deaths.

The state currently has a daily average of more than 15,000 cases and 45 deaths.

In Sacramento, there’s a total of 173,562 cases and 2,448 deaths. More than 1,400 are new cases and 11 are new deaths, as of Monday.