California has shattered its record for the number of deaths in a single day.
The CA Department of Public Health reports that 293 Californians died from COVID-19 on Tuesday, far outstripping the record of 225 deaths that was set in the previous week.
The new record comes as cases continue to surge to new levels around the state.
In the Bay Area, a county has run out of ICU beds for the first time in the pandemic. All 29 beds in Marin County are now full.
"As an ICU doctor I’m not scared by much. But I find the prospect of having a hospital and an ICU overflowing, and concerned about not being able to take good care of our residents of Marin, I find that scary," said Dr. Laura Eberhard, chief of critical care at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael in a statement to the community.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the state is building field hospitals and working to expand capacity, which means that when an area hits 0% ICU capacity, hospitals go into a "surge" mode with some patients having to go to temporary ICU wards. The governor assured residents that 0% capacity does not mean that patients who need intensive care have nowhere to go.
Marin County Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said the situation will likely grow worse before it gets better with hospitals surpassing their capacity. He estimated that there are about 4,000 active cases countywide, with many people unaware that they are sick.
"Among those 4,000 or so we can expect to be infected right now and infectious to others, it’s impossible to know who and where they are."
Dr. Willis said the surging cases around the state has made it difficult to increase staffing, and ICUs may have to increase patient to nurse ratios from 1:1 to possibly as high as 3:1.
The Bay Area as a whole has 15.8% ICU capacity available as of Tuesday afternoon, although that figure varies widely by county. San Francisco still has more than a third of its ICU beds available and Alameda County reports more than 20% availability, but Santa Clara County is down to 9%.
A few more ICU admissions could mean triggering the state’s stay-at-home order, which will force the closure of outdoor dining and hair salons and reduce retail capacity to 20%.
While many counties in the region have already adopted these restrictions, San Mateo, Napa, Solano and Santa Cruz Counties have not, and triggering the state order would mean an extension of stay-at-home orders in other counties.
Dr. Eberhard said there is only so much the healthcare system can do to stem the tide of the pandemic.
"By the time people get to us, it’s really late in the game. Only our community can really stop this epidemic."
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