Coronavirus surge will strain California hospitals, Gov. Gavin Newsom warns

Californians’ behavior in the next eight weeks will determine how burdened hospitals will be as they treat a projected surge in patients infected with the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.

Newsom declined to reveal exactly when California’s models show the surge will come and how many may die, saying he did not want to cause alarm. The state’s current hospital surge capacity of about 90,000 falls thousands of beds short of what may be needed, but officials are working to secure more facilities and equipment to meet the demand, he said.

“We have an ability to shift and reshape and change that capacity,” Carmela Coyle, the California Hospital Association’s president, said during the Tuesday news briefing.

Newsom met with Coyle, other hospital leaders and representatives for other medical professionals Tuesday to discuss what needed to be done to meet the coming demand.

“We had a very candid and sober, if not sobering, conversation about where we may be and where we need to go,” Newsom said. “The good news is none of it surprised any of us.”

State leaders will move to expand doctors’ scope of practice to let more of them to treat patients with COVID 19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Newsom said. California hospitals also plan to repurpose some operating rooms as intensive care units to treat COVID-19 patients, he said.

His administration will use part of a $1 billion appropriation he and the Legislature approved for emergency coronavirus response to rent two large hospitals, one in Northern California and the other in Southern California.

The federal government appears to be relying on projections that show if the U.S. does not act, a surge in coronavirus cases could hit hospitals in the summer and that 2.2 million Americans could die in the pandemic, according to reporting by The New York Times. Data analysis by ProPublica found hospitals across the country will be overburdened if Americans can’t slow the spread of the disease.

In addition to beds, Newsom also said hospitals will need more protective equipment like masks for doctors and nurses treating patients.

The nurse’s union is already raising alarm that its workers are not receiving adequate protective gear, particularly N95 masks to prevent airborne disease transmission.

“Our frontline nurses are in a war zone rationing and reusing applies,” Stephanie Roberson, a lobbyist for the California Nurses Association, told The Bee on Monday. “These are supplies that they are required by law to have.”

Newsom said he spoke with President Donald Trump on Tuesday about getting more supplies from the federal government, including mobile field hospitals and use of Navy medical ships off the coast of California.

Also on Tuesday, federal Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the military will provide 2,000 ventilators and up to 5 million respirator masks from its strategic reserve.

In the meantime, Newsom urged Californians to avoid social contact to slow the virus’ spread and keep hospitals from becoming overburdened.

“The more we do individually will reduce those rates,” Newsom said. “We are not victims of fate. We are victims only of bad decisions.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 8:26 PM.