As COVID-19 cases continue to increase throughout the Bay Area, some of the largest peaks are in southern Santa Clara County.
Gilroy’s only hospital is struggling to keep up with demand, and on Monday community leaders sounded the alarm and tried to explain the spike – while begging people to redouble their efforts to prevent the spread.
At Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, the IC unit was full and they had to transfer an average of one to two patients a day to other hospitals.
“We have begun to cancel elective surgeries so that those nurses from our surgery department are now deployed to assist in the ICU, the emergency department and the medical service,” said Gloria dela Merced.
But it’s not enough: with the ICU full, transfers to other hospitals have become a daily occurrence – sometimes even requiring a move to another province. While some subacute patients are now being transferred here to The Paul Health Center in Morgan Hill.
“It really helps to unload those patients who are stable enough to be discharged but not going home,” Merced said.
Gilroy and Morgan Hill have fallen more than almost anywhere in the county, which is why the beds fill up quickly. But why?
“We know that there are several factors that play a role in the high number of cases, one is the density, the number of people in the population living together in a small space and the other is theirs and the percentage of the population that does essential work, ”said Maribel Martinez, Santa Clara County Public Information Officer.
And while only a quarter of the entire country’s population are Latinos, they make up nearly 52% of all covid cases in the province.
That’s why the community’s health leaders rang the alarm clock in Spanish and English on Monday, urging the people of the region to stay home on New Year’s Eve and wear masks.