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San Joaquin Valley region ICU capacity reaches critical level; triggers surge order

The San Joaquin Valley, which encompasses 12 counties, previously issued a hospital surge order during the winter period of COVID-19 surge cases.

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. — Hospitals in California's San Joaquin Valley have reached a critical level with COVID-19 patients, triggering a hospital surge order. 

According to a press release from the California Department of Public Health [CDPH], the San Joaquin Valley has met the threshold for hospital surge orders, which is when "a region has less than 10% of staffed adult ICU beds available for a period of three consecutive days."

The San Joaquin Valley encompasses 12 counties: Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Tuolumne. 

“Covid’s not a joke. Everyone needs to do their job and get vaccinated, because look where my dad’s at,” Ernie Garcia, a son of a man hospitalized with coronavirus, said.

With lawn chairs, candles and coolers, Ernie, his two brothers and their whole families have spent the past 10 days camped out in front of the San Joaquin General Hospital after their father, 79-year-old Frank B. Chavez Jr., who is fully vaccinated, was admitted with COVID-19 and later placed on a ventilator. 

"We’re here because of Covid and we shouldn’t be so get vaccinated, please, everybody," Ernie said.    

Friday afternoon, their father was taken off the ventilator with a 50/50 chance of survival.

"Today was a day that we thought that he wasn’t going to survive off the ventilator but my dad is a Vietnam veteran and he is here fighting," Frank Chavez III, another son, said.

But this comes at a time when the hospital he’s staying at, San Joaquin General, has been placed on surge protocols by the state because hospitals throughout the 12 counties of the San Joaquin Valley region are running out of space in their ICUs.

“We knew that this surge might be as bad as last summer's but we’ve passed last summer’s numbers and still haven’t reached the peak of this surge," Dr. Maggie Park, the San Joaquin County Public Health Officer said. "More than half of our ICU beds are occupied by Covid patients, and our ICU capacity is at 136%."

For the next week, hospitals in the region must:

  1. All hospitals in the county and region that have ICU beds must accept patient transfers. 
  2. If there are no available ICU beds within the region, then hospitals outside the region must accept transfer patients "clinically appropriate."

Cheryl Laughlin, Public Information Specialist for San Joaquin County Public Health Services, said in a statement this happened during the winter COVID-19 surge. 

"At this time, area hospitals have been able to meet the demand. There has not been a need to transfer patients out of San Joaquin County," Laughlin said.

Until then, the Chavez family is holding out hope for their father and they’re encouraging everyone to take this pandemic seriously.

"I feel bad for the nurses, I feel bad for the doctors, and I just think that everybody needs to open their eyes and just know that we’re in a pandemic, it’s not going to take one or two of us to get out of this, it’s going to take all of us to get out of us," Frank said.

California is averaging 27.9 newly confirmed cases per 100,000 people, down from 33.1 last month. But hospitalizations have continued to increase, with 8,766 patients.

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