The start of 2021 was grim for many patients and health care workers as the coronavirus continued to surge across California and the nation, leading to a record number of statewide deaths while straining some hospitals to the breaking point.
California reported 585 COVID-19 deaths Friday, the most in a single day since the start of the pandemic. New confirmed cases in San Francisco rose to 447 — also a single-day high, according to a Chronicle analysis. The previous record, set Dec. 17, was 420 new cases.
Nationally, the total number of infections topped 20 million — the most of any country by far — as deliveries of vaccines lagged well behind the Trump administration’s promises.
Hospitals across California are running low on space and staff in their intensive care units, where COVID-19 patients often need to be treated and tethered to machines for weeks.
Two huge chunks of the state — the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California — are now at zero percent ICU capacity, according to figures released Friday by the state Department of Public Health. The Bay Area’s ICU capacity is at 6.3%, while Greater Sacramento is at 11.1% and Northern California at 33.3%.
“My biggest impression when I look at these numbers is just fear,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. He explained that while doctors now have more tools and therapies to fight COVID-19 than at the start of the pandemic, those advantages mean little if a hospital is overwhelmed with more patients than it can handle.
“You can have the best therapy in the world,” Chin-Hong said, but “if you have a lot of people come in, you just can’t take care of them all in the same way.”
The situation is particularly dangerous in Los Angeles, where the unprecedented volume of COVID-19 patients is making it hard for hospitals to deliver enough oxygen to keep patients alive, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy specialists from the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services announced Friday that at six aging Los Angeles-area hospitals, Army experts will evaluate and upgrade oxygen systems, starting as soon as Jan. 2.
“By working to upgrade challenged oxygen delivery systems at these older hospitals, we can improve the ability to deliver life-sustaining medical care to those who need it,” Mark Ghilarducci, director of the emergency services office, said in a statement.
The Bay Area’s hospitals aren’t as stressed, according to the state health department’s numbers. The UCSF system still has 30% of its ICU capacity available, Chin-Hong said.
“We do pretty well as a county in San Francisco, but again, our borders are porous,” Chin-Hong said. “The epidemic in California is driven by Southern California and the Central Valley now. It just takes a matter of time to have that risk move up.”
He added that the situation here will probably worsen here before it gets better, because Friday’s numbers don’t include anyone who became infected around Christmas.
Despite repeated warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities that people should stay home over Christmas, many Americans didn’t listen. Almost a million got on planes and flew on Christmas Eve, the Transportation Security Administration reported.
Officials also are concerned that a host of parties and get-togethers surrounding New Year’s Day also could result in a new surge of coronavirus cases.
Jason Fagone is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jason.fagone@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfagone
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January 02, 2021 at 07:51AM
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Grim start to 2021 as both S.F. and California set coronavirus records - San Francisco Chronicle
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