STOCKTON, Calif. — Married three years, Joshwa and Berenice Dickens of Stockton are making sure they are not COVID-19 positive.
"Mostly I've had a headache that's lasted the last couple days and I've been just way more exhausted than I normally would," Joshwa said.
Working in pest control, Joshwa said the scare is enough to make him come with his wife to a drive-thru testing site at Stockton's Edison High School.
About a month ago there were only a handful of cars at the same site. But on Dec. 11, the line of about a dozen cars stretched all the way out into the street, non-stop.
The growing numbers of people getting tested reflect the surge in cases and the dwindling number of ICU beds. In San Joaquin County, ICU capacity stands at 118%.
Of the seven hospitals in the county, only Sutter Tracy Community Hospital stands below capacity at 88%.
On Friday, 267 COVID positive patients requiring hospitalization passed the previous peak demand of 262 COVID hospitalized patients that occurred on July 27, 2020.
In the past 24 hours, the San Joaquin County Emergency Medical Services reported six more deaths.
Just two days ago, the county EMS warned the predicted Thanksgiving surge still hadn't hit.
"Our increase was starting to happen at the beginning of November so not quite that Thanksgiving has contributed to that quite yet. But, I'm sure with those gatherings we're going to see increased numbers," said Marissa Matta, spokesperson for the San Joaquin County EMS.
Late Friday evening, the San Joaquin County EMS announced it was able to gain 18 registered nurses through State Medical Health Coordination Center. The mutual aid request will send the nurses to Adventist Health Lodi Memorial Hospital. The deployment will allow the expansion of the hospital's ICU from 10 beds to 20 beds and telemetry capacity from 8 beds to 15 beds.
According to a news release from the San Joaquin County EMS, "Each hospital has a surge plan in place that allows the hospital to accommodate patient care needs and increase ICU bed capacity by expanding into different areas of the hospital (e.g. telemetry, post-anesthesia care, etc.). If a hospital reaches its resource limit the hospital will arrange to transfer patients to another hospital."
Rural counties near San Joaquin County are not immune to the surge in coronavirus cases.
In Tuolumne County, there were 305 COVID-19 cases on Nov. 1. Now, there are 1,500 cases.
In Mariposa County, home to Yosemite National Park, there were 81 cases on Nov. 1. Now, there are 171 cases.
The San Joaquin Region as a whole actually saw its total ICU capacity ease slightly in the 24-hour period. It now stands at 4.5% ICU capacity, compared to just under 2% a day ago.
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