Hospital leaders, physicians and frontline workers on Tuesday urged Californians to take basic precautions and stay home during the holidays to minimize the spread of COVID-19, and warned that hospitals in the state are reaching or exceeding capacity and that staff exhaustion is also a concern.
California registered 32,659 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of positive cases to nearly 2 million. The surge in cases is putting hospitals under pressure. Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged in a Monday briefing that some models predict 99,000 virus-related hospitalizations by mid-January.
California hospital leaders presented a similarly bleak picture at a news conference Tuesday. Kaiser Permanente chairman and CEO Greg Adams said Kaiser’s hospitals are at over 100 percent capacity, and 52 percent are patients diagnosed with COVID. Additionally, 16 of Kaiser’s 36 hospitals are above 100 percent occupancy in their intensive care units.
Hospital leaders said staff exhaustion is their biggest concern going into the holidays. Clinicians are having to carry larger workloads as hospitalizations increase, and the around-the-clock work is taking a toll on providers’ mental health.
“We are seeing unprecedented numbers of patients with very severe illnesses moving from our intensive care units out into the regular floors, requiring nurses and physicians that don’t normally provide care to these very critically ill patients stretch to the tops of their license,” said Vanessa Walker, Valley Area eICU Medical Director at Sutter Health.
When making plans for the holidays, hospital leaders encouraged Californians to think about what holidays will look like in 2021 if people make sacrifices today.
“I know it’s been a long road for everybody, it’s been nine months, we’re tired of doing this, but this is the time we need to be most conscious,” said Thomas McGinn, an executive at Dignity Health. “If you want to celebrate next year with your family and your friends and your loved ones, now is the time to be disciplined.”
“Do not share the air,” McGinn added.
And in situations where it is not possible to avoid in-person interactions, Stephen Parodi, associate executive director at The Permanente Medical Group, advised people to take precautions like covering their nose and mouth, meeting outside and keeping interactions short.
Parodi also said that it is not too late to take steps to prevent additional COVID-19 cases over the holidays.
“I want to be clear on that — it is not too late,” he said. “We can all collectively make these plans.”
IF cloth masks worked there shouldn’t be spikes and death rate should be coming down.
“… coronavirus is about 0.12 microns in diameter and N95 (masks) protect down to 0.1 microns, with 95% efficiency, …”
Most articles out there talk in terms of “percent”, while neglecting to mention particle size cloth masks are capable of stopping.
A false sense of security ?
Six feet ? Absolutely.
‘Cloth masks are NOT enough to stop the spread of Covid-19 without social distancing because they let in enough droplets to infect someone standing less than six feet away, study finds’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9080597/Cloth-masks-NOT-stop-spread-COVID-19-without-social-distancing.html
“If cloth masks worked so well, and people have been wearing them in huge numbers the past six months, why have we seen a spike in COVID cases?”
https://www.timesrepublican.com/opinion/another-view/2020/12/masks-and-unneeded-mandates/
Governor Schwarzenegger set up mobile hospitals program along with stockpiling of 50 million N95 masks, 2,400 portable ventilators along with 21,000 additional patient beds in ready to set up kit form.
moonbeam and DEMs did away with three 200-bed mobile hospitals complete with ICUs . . . . all gone.
Today if they had enough N95 masks available CV-19 could be greatly reduced in a matter of weeks.
Nobody ever claimed that cloth masks are ideal. They do mitigate the spread though. If you read the article, it basically states that.
Yes, stay as far apart from people as you can, and avoid those gatherings where people wear no masks at all. That’s probably why the numbers are spiking – Thanksgiving. Next it will be Xmas gatherings.
Be part of the solution, not part of the problem 👍
It is a sad state of affairs that this country has not been able to gear up and produce N95 masks so that they are readily available for everyone. We’ve had ten months to work on this problem, and it seems that nothing has happened.
By the way, what happened to the huge supply of N95 masks Gavin purchased (with our money) from China?
If we were fighting another world war on the scale of WWII we would lose.
Hospital leaders.
Who are hospital leaders and what are they supposed to lead?
I don’t buy into this leader propaganda.
Just calling someone a leader does not mean he is worthy of being followed.
Whenever I see the word leader I cringe.
I don’t let anyone lead me.
Of the people I’ve spoken with about potential Christmas and New Years plans, no one has planned a big party or celebration. Some people are getting together with a small group of family members they’ve gathered with before, others are sharing baked goods and potluck-style dishes with friends they would otherwise gather with.
It’s been uplifting to see the many Christmas decorations outside this year, from simple Holiday lights to full on elaborate decorations. Almost everyone I’ve spoken with recently is in very good spirits, which is so heartwarming and encouraging to see.
On an aside, it has also been nice to see and meet many new people while walking this year; also find very positive the increased use of area parks. I hope people continue to take walks and enjoy the many beautiful parks we have in the area.
Just because you’ve gathered with them before doesn’t make it OK to see them again. You don’t know where they’ve been, who they have been exposed to, that’s the whole point of shelter-in-place is to avoid those not in your household so that we can bring this virus down. Other countries have done it, I don’t understand why the U.S. hasn’t been able to. And please don’t tell me it’s a hoax, that’s just disrespectful to those who have died from it and those who are working trying to save our lives from it.
again explain why i can walk around in target and safeway and homedepot
but cant sit and eat outside of a restaurant
explain that please
and if it is because of the mask down for eating
i eat like that with the same people i am sitting with at that restaurant
why cant a women sit with a mask and get her hair done
if the masks work ….
why cant school staff wear a mask and let the children get back to some normalcy
if the masks work ….
and lets all remember that potus was not in charge of the state when planes direct from wuhan were landing at SFO
with newscums approval ….
and newscum again is stating that this ….NEW strain is not in america …
but of course he will use it when he needs to later ….