If you are planning a meeting during the coming holidays, county health officials say you should cancel it.
Meeting family or friends outside your home can lead to a sudden increase in COVID-19 in cases and hospitalizations, further burdening a local intensive care system that is already close to capacity.
“I know how difficult this time of year is for many of us. Holidays should be a time when we get together with family and friends. This year, things should be different, ”Wilma Wooten, MD, MPH, county public health officer. “We know what happens when the holidays come and people get together. COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths increase dramatically. “
Since the availability of beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the Southern California region fell below 15% and the Regional Home Stay Order came into effect, the situation continued to worsen.
The availability of beds in the ICU is now zero. Hospitals in the region are overloaded, even after adding more ICU beds.
Here’s what the region experienced in the weeks after Thanksgiving:
- 44% or about 59,400 of the nearly 146,000 cases since the pandemic began occurred after Thanksgiving.
- Of the more than 5,500 hospitalizations since the pandemic began, about 780 or 14% occurred after Thanksgiving.
- Of the 1,350 deaths reported since the start of the pandemic, about 330 or 25% occurred after Thanksgiving. With the rate of growth of deaths, the region is expected to register another 600 deaths by the end of January.
“We don’t want to see what happened after Thanksgiving happened again. We just had 39 deaths reported in a single day. This is a new record, ”said Wooten. “We need to remain separate to control the spread of the virus. If we don’t, cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to increase ”.
COVID-19 vaccines available in the region:
- Total doses: 102,550 available on December 23, 2020.
- Pfizer: 29,250 doses; two doses administered three weeks apart.
- Modern: 73,300 doses; two doses administered four weeks apart.
- The number of doses does not include federal, military and multi-county entities, such as Kaiser, as well as the Pharmaceutical Partnership Program.
ICU capacity and order of stay at home:
- The current ICU capacity for southern California is 0.0% and will be updated daily by the state.
- The regional home stay order is still in effect and prohibits meetings of any size with people from other families and adds restrictions for various sectors.
- The order will last at least three weeks or until the region’s ICU capacity reaches or exceeds 15%. The application will be evaluated by the state after the three-week period.
Community configuration outbreaks:
- 12 new community outbreaks were confirmed on December 22: three in commercial settings, two in TK-12 school settings, one in a daycare / preschool / daycare, one in a grocery store, one in a health setting, one in a construction setting, one in an emergency services setting, one in a food / beverage processing setting, and one in a government setting.
- In the last seven days (December 16-22), 44 community outbreaks have been confirmed.
- The number of outbreaks in the community remains above the trigger of seven or more in seven days.
- An outbreak in a community setting is defined as three or more cases of COVID-19 in an environment and in people from different families in the past 14 days.
Test:
- 31,036 tests were reported to the county on December 22, and the percentage of new laboratory confirmed cases was 8%.
- The average continuous percentage of positive cases over 14 days is 9.7%. The target is less than 8.0%.
- The daily average of 7-day tests is 28,806.
- People at higher risk for COVID-19 with or without symptoms should be tested. People with any symptoms should get tested. Healthcare professionals and essentials should also be tested, as well as people who have had close contact with a positive case or live in communities that are being highly affected. Those who have recently returned from a trip or who have participated in festive events should also take the test.
Cases:
- 2,598 new cases were reported to the county on December 22. The total for the region now stands at 134,696.
- 5,524 or 4.1% of all cases required hospitalization.
- 1,160 or 0.9% of all cases and 21% of hospitalized cases had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
Deaths:
- 39 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported to the county on December 22, a new record. The region’s total is now 1,350.
- 20 men and 19 women died between 9 and 22 December, and their ages ranged from 40 to 90 years.
- All but two had underlying medical conditions.
More information:
The most detailed data summaries found in the County coronavirus-sd.com website are updated around 5pm daily.