California health officials are ordering hospitals in counties less overwhelmed by the latest COVID-19 surge to accept patients from areas that have been hit the hardest.
“It is no longer do we just ask a facility if they can take a patient from X, Y, Z,” said Jim Morrissey, Alameda County’s medical health operational area coordinator. “[The directive] is you will receive patients if you have availability.”
Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer, said the county had anticipated the need to assist other communities.
“We see the ever-increasing numbers of people coming into the hospital across the state, especially in Southern California, where now they are at zero percent capacity,” he said.
On Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city still had more than a third of its ICU beds available; the capacity of the Bay Area region as a whole is about 3.5%.
California is treating more than 4,800 people with COVID-19 across all its intensive care units, and it has roughly 1,200 ICU beds left unoccupied, the lowest availability of the entire pandemic, according to the state's dashboard.
Willis says the order will ensure people around the state get the highest standard of care. But he says his office will keep an eye on local needs, too.
“We will not be obliged to care for patients from outside of our region if it would prevent us from being able to care for our own patients,” Willis said.
Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County health officer, says the mutual aid system is not new and the county has been transferring patients around throughout the pandemic.
“We all have to chip in to help,” Matyas said.
The order will remain in effect for at least three weeks.