The province reported 23 fatalities on Wednesday, the same day frontline workers in the province received COVID-19 vaccinations. The most recent fatalities, dating back to earlier this month, pushed the death toll to 1,718.
The region also registered 3,231 new diagnoses of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 111,168.
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The number of hospital admissions rose from 1,371 Tuesday to 1,486 on Wednesday, including 319 patients in intensive care, from 296 the day before.
Both are new records – a daily occurrence since last week.
The availability of ICU beds in the province fell from 10.4% Tuesday to 9.5% in the unadjusted category and from 1.4% in the adjusted metric to zero. The state created the modified statistic to reflect the difference in beds available for COVID-19 patients and non-coronavirus patients.
The percentage of available ICU beds in Southern California’s 11-county region dropped from 1.7% to 0.5%.
Last Wednesday, the Orange County Health Care Agency issued an injunction allowing hospitals participating in the 911 system to request a diversion of ambulances to other medical centers.
Dr. Carl Schultz, the EMS medical director, said in a statement that hospital emergency departments have become so overwhelmed by the COVID spike that “almost all hospitals went on distraction.”
“If nothing was done, ambulances would soon run out of hospitals to transport their patients,” said Schultz. That is why we have temporarily suspended the ambulance diversion. and help alleviate escalating concerns about finding hospital destinations for ambulances. ”
Schultz added, “To our knowledge, this has never happened before.”
On Monday, Schultz issued a memo authorizing ambulance providers to take patients up to 29 years old to Orange Children’s Hospital, but another memo released by Schultz on Tuesday deleted that.
“There have been multiple logistical complications as a result of this directive and it would be in everyone’s interest to stop this activity with immediate effect,” said Schultz.
Orange County’s adjusted daily number of cases per 100,000 rose from 30.3 the week before to 42.7 on Tuesday, while the positivity rate increased from 10.6% to 13.2%. The county’s Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate, which measures cases in the hard-hit, more needy parts of the county, rose from 16.2% last week to 18.8%.
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The province tests 526.8 people per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day delay, which is a record high.
All of the county’s statistics now fall within the state’s most restrictive purple tier of the state’s four-tier coronavirus surveillance system.
As of Sunday, 38 deaths have been reported in Orange County. Last week, the province reported 62 fatalities, up from 41 and 26 in the previous two weeks, respectively.
Most of the deaths reported since Friday were in the 75 and older category, but at least one was 25 to 34 years old.
Prior to this month, the record for ICU patients in Orange County was 245 at its mid-July peak. Overall hospital admissions are breaking records daily since December 2.
The county received its first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer on Wednesday. About 25,000 doses were delivered.
Dr. Paul Sheikewitz of Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, who was one of the first to receive a vaccination on Wednesday, told the City News Service that it was “quite a challenge” to meet the wave of patients.
“The biggest challenge is the burden of the number of patients we see versus the number of staff who are able to care for patients,” Sheikewitz said. “Providence has done a fantastic job of expanding the service, but we are probably pushing it to the limit.”
Dr. Jeremy Zoch, the hospital’s CEO, urged residents to stay at home as much as possible, especially during the holidays.
“When (the hospital’s caregivers) normally take vacation, they take extra shifts and work in unexpected roles,” Zoch said. “Stay at home. Stay safe and help us reduce the spread so we can keep up with and nurture the community here.”
Dr. Clayton Chau, the County Health Care Agency’s director and chief health officer, said, “We all need to appeal to the community not to let our guard down now, not now that we are so close to the other side of the pandemic Right now we have to work together like never before. ”
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Zoch said the latest wave of patients was pretty incredible. ”
“Last summer, when we had our July wave, we had the National Guard here helping us … But honestly, this wave has given us 75% more patients than the last wave,” Zoch said. ” U.S.”
Zoch said his hospital’s IC beds are “nearly full. We are lucky to have CHOC Children’s next door and we have talked to them about giving them space for use if needed.”
Dr. Stephanie Chao, director of pharmaceutical services at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, said she experienced a “great sense of relief when she saw that big truck pull up” to deliver the first doses of Pfizer vaccine Wednesday morning.
“I know our department has worked hard … and does it every day to support each other,” Chao said. “We feel that Hoag has put in a lot of hard work to prepare to endure several peaks.
“We have plans that we can activate and we are already activating, so as an organization we just work hard, do everything we can … Some days we just run on adrenaline and hope there will be some light at the end of it. The tunnel is. As health workers, we keep going because that’s all we can do. But sometimes we need a minute to get together and think. “
The province’s health officials are particularly struggling to accommodate elderly people with dementia, who are infected and show no symptoms, Chao said.
“We can’t send them to a hospital … They don’t need that care,” Chao said at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting. And we can’t send them to a nursing home … and we can. do not send to a hotel. ”
Those patients are likely to be housed at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, which is expected to open Thursday. “But we only have 50 beds available,” Chau said. “We won’t have any more options to care for these people.”
“I lose my sleep every night,” he said. ‘I’m afraid. … I have never been more afraid of Christmas and New Year in my entire life … I can’t imagine what it would be like after the holidays if people don’t listen and don’t obey. ”
Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest restrictions will continue until at least Dec. 27, but with the increase in the number of cases and patients, “I don’t think we can get out,” Chau said.
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Supervisor Doug Chaffee said he received a text message Monday night from a medical professional at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, indicating that the hospital has “99% capacity.”
The hospital’s 301 beds are full of 138 COVID-19 patients, Chaffee said.
“The ICU has a capacity of 105%,” he said. ‘They use every available bed. The emergency department has an overflow … All Orange County hospitals are in the same situation.
“It’s awful, so they’ll be pitching a tent in the parking lot soon, probably for triage. I think what we are seeing is not a wave, but a tsunami. ‘ ‘
To meet the need, mobile field hospitals are being set up to be housed in large trailers with hard-floor canvas tents and temperature-controlled units with running water, toilets, showers and generators, as well as air purifiers.
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital will have 50 additional beds, St. Jude’s 25 and UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange 50 beds.
An outbreak in the county’s prisons that began last week has now infected 627 inmates, compared to 416 reported Monday. The county is waiting for results from 86 more tests.
Sheriff Don Barnes, who had previously continued testing limited to newly booked inmates, anyone showing symptoms or those exposed to an infected person, will now try to test everyone in the prisons, department spokeswoman Carrie Braun said.
Prisoners who test positive are confined to a single cell in an isolated state, and all others exposed are quarantined together while waiting for test results, she said.
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Meanwhile, Barnes has been ordered by an Orange County Superior Court judge to cut his prison population by half by Friday, meaning 1,800 inmates could be released for incarceration, ankle cuff surveillance, or simply released completely.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to hire an outside counsel to assist Barnes in the legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a lawsuit to reduce the prison population.
The board also voted to sue the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for challenging the departments to remove criminals convicted during the pandemic from the county jails.
The province is also facing an increase in the number of outbreaks in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. As of Tuesday, 32 skilled nursing facilities have had two or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 36 assisted living facilities had two or more cases.
County officials have been asked to provide personal protective equipment, additional training, or personnel to combat the spread of COVID-19 in those facilities, where the main reason for the spread is likely to come from workers who contract the virus outside the site. Kim said.
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