Some California hospitals are running out of intensive care beds, as the delta variant continues to stimulate COVID-19 cases in the state, The Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, hospitals in downtown San Joaquin County have had less than 10 percent of ICU beds for adult patients for three days in a row. The county health officer said the number of new virus cases and hospitalized patients has exceeded the respective two maximum numbers during last summer’s increase.
A spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County Emergency Services Office told the AP that as of Friday, the county has enough hospital beds available to prevent the transfer of patients to other counties. If ICU capacity in the county drops to zero at some point, hospitals across the state will have to accept transfer patients, the AP notes.
Fresno County is facing such a dire situation, as hospitals in the area treat more than twice as many confirmed coronavirus patients as they treated four weeks ago, Fresno Bee reported.
“We are very concerned every time a holiday weekend causes the kind of meetings and celebrations that can lead to more transmissions,” Rais Vohra, Fresno County Health Officer, told the Bee before the weekend of Labor Day.
New coronavirus cases have fallen across the state in California, but hospitalizations have not followed the same trend. As of Thursday, 8,630 people were hospitalized with the virus statewide, more than five times than they were hospitalized on July 1, according to the AP.
California issued vaccine warrants last month for teachers, school staff and health workers to combat the latest wave.