SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. — The San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were the first to go under the stay-at-home order three weeks ago. But since the mandate went into place, ICU and hospitalization numbers have drastically increased, causing the order to be extended today by California leaders.
"We've hit a number of negative benchmarks," said Marissa Matta, San Joaquin Emergency Medical Services Specialist. "We've seen the most numbers of deaths in a single day, (and) we've seen the most numbers of COVID-positive patients across all seven hospitals."
These numbers are the worst San Joaquin County has seen in terms of hospitalizations and ICU numbers since the start of the pandemic. On Tuesday, San Joaquin County's ICU bed capacity stood at 155%, which is 10% up from the day before, with around 345 COVID-positive patients across all seven hospitals. In the last 24 hours alone, seven people died from COVID-19.
"It is a very deadly virus and people are dying in our community and across the state," said San Joaquin Deputy County Administrator, Jolena Voorhis.
But a bit of hope was delivered Tuesday morning, with 39 medical personnel arriving from the Department of Defense to help two San Joaquin County hospitals, Dameron Hospital in Stockton and Adventist Health Lodi Memorial.
"Them arriving today means it's a little ray of hope for all of us in the county," said Brooke McCollough, who serves as the operations executive for both hospitals.
The stay-at-home order will continue to be in place until ICU capacity projections are above or equal to 15%, California Secretary of Health Dr. Ghaly said. On Tuesday, they stood at 0% and future projections look equally grim.
"We're essentially projecting that the ICU capacity is not improving in Southern California or San Joaquin Valley and that the demand will continue to exceed capacity," said Ghaly.
Voorhis said she expects that San Joaquin County will not be able to come out of the state's stay-at-home order for "several weeks."
With holidays in the past, health officials are preparing for COVID-19 cases to get even worse.
"We know after Thanksgiving and Christmas (that) we anticipate there will be quite a big surge of COVID patients coming through our doors," said McCollough.
But with the vaccine on the way, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I think people just have to hang in there for a couple more months," said Voorhis. "We just have to persevere and get through this so we can all survive."
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