Santa Clara County tweeted a stark message Monday:
'We're Running Out of Room': Santa Clara County Hospitals Straining Under Weight of COVID-19
Health officials say there are about 50 non-surge ICU beds available in the entire county of 2 million people — about 15% capacity. For regular hospital beds, it's about 17%.
Registered nurse Allan Kamara works at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, one of the county’s three public hospitals. He says things are “extremely busy” in the emergency department.
"This is my 10th year as a nurse," he said. "I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
Kamara says people are coming in extremely sick with COVID-19, some of them struggling to breathe. It’s hard for him to watch. He says his colleagues are exhausted.
"When you go around, you see these nurses today, they’re extremely burned out," he said.
Sixteen staff members tested positive for the coronavirus at the hospital over a recent two-week period. The ripple effect meant about 60 people had to stay home during that time, further straining the system. ICU beds in the three public hospitals altogether stand at about 10% capacity, according to Santa Clara Medical Center CEO Paul Lorenz.
County Health officials said Monday that the 1,450 newly confirmed cases from the day before had shattered last week’s record, and that hospitals are canceling elective surgeries and nurses are being reassigned to care for critically ill patients.
—Polly Stryker (@hamrashaar)