Stanislaus County is hammered by the coronavirus. Will schools reopen in August?
Stanislaus County leaders are mostly facing bleak news in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, they learned that intensive care units in local hospitals were swamped with people seriously ill with COVID-19, along with other patients, and were near capacity.
County Chief Executive Officer Jody Hayes informed supervisors Tuesday the 58 ICU beds denoted as “available” on the county’s online dashboard are mostly for pediatric patients or infants — not for adults.
Monday brought the revelation that the county’s case count of 2,670 is almost 1,000 less than a more accurate state tally. The state is reporting a surge of 2,200 new cases in Stanislaus County in the past two weeks, an increase of 123 percent.
The surge raises the possibility of state action to close additional sectors of the economy, which were reopened in May and June, and the potential to rethink decisions such as reopening schools.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, said unless the surge is turned around in the next two weeks she’s not likely to recommend that schools reopen the first week in August and she has told school superintendents.
She added that reopening elementary schools might be easier amid the epidemic because children, with some exceptions, seem less affected by the coronavirus.
Supervisors also were told the county’s contact tracing efforts won’t win the battle. With recent delays in scheduling tests and getting test results, the county’s contact tracing team can’t instruct people to quarantine in time to keep them from passing the virus to others.
Slow turnaround for coronavirus test results
Vaishampayan said she hears reports of inundated labs running low on reagents. The turnaround time for tests is now a minimum of 3.5 days and can be seven days.
After the county received state approval for a safe reopening May 20, the five local hospitals had 14 patients with COVID-19 around Memorial Day, but the number grew to 40 patients two weeks later. As of Monday, the hospitals had 154 COVID patients, with 46 in intensive care.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are on pace to reach 500 by the end of July.
Hospitals have transferred some COVID patients elsewhere but also receive some patients from other counties.
Officials cited other indicators that the virus is widespread in the community. As many as 65 people per day are going to hospital emergency departments with complaints of fever, a COVID-like symptom; cough is another common complaint.
According a chart shown to supervisors, hospitals are admitting COVID-19 patients in younger age groups. Almost a third of hospitalized patients are 50 years of age or younger.
Kaiser hospitals ‘greatly impacted’ by resurgence
Kaiser Permanente told staff in a memo last week that its Modesto and Manteca hospitals have reached capacity.
“Our inpatient and outpatient operations are being greatly impacted by the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the Central Valley,” the alert said. The message added that Kaiser was executing a next phase of its surge plan to bring in additional staff and physicians to care for patients.
When asked to comment on the alert, Kaiser released a comment from Stephen Parodi, associate executive director for The Permanente Medical Group, which recognized the surge in COVID-19 cases. “Our Kaiser Permanente facilities and staff are responding to this increased number of hospitalized patients, expertly treating patients with the virus while safely caring for other conditions as well,” Parodi’s statement said.
Hayes said he’s been informed by hospital executives their facilities are near capacity, because of COVID-19 and other patients who postponed treatment for medical issues during the earlier weeks of the pandemic and now need acute care.
The county’s top officials said it’s up to residents to slow the outbreak by wearing masks out in public, through social distancing and by self-isolating if they become infected. The county is referring to a state law that requires infected people to quarantine themselves.
“The train has left the station,” Supervisor Terry Withrow said. “This thing is going to run its course and I don’t think we can do much about that.”
Supervisor Vito Chiesa surmised that people became complacent with the success of sheltering in place, which held case numbers down in March and April. But the illness has spread rapidly since a state-approved reopening process went into effect in May.
“I tell people you have to wear a mask. You have to do your part with social distancing,” Chiesa said. He added that he doesn’t believe there’s much support for closing additional business sectors that were reopened.
State money comes with strings attached
The board unanimously approved a certification for receiving millions of dollars in state support, which comes with a requirement of county compliance with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s current and future orders for combating the surge.
The support includes $12.7 million in state funding through the federal CARES Act and $9.1 million to $12 million in realignment backfill that can fill budget holes created by sales tax losses during the pandemic.
The board agreed with Withrow’s suggestion to set aside the $12.7 million in event the county can’t live with other executive orders that come down from Sacramento.
He said the county needs to incorporate the realignment backfill in the final 2020-21 budget in September. The funding can cover costs for CalWORKS, foster care, in-home supportive service, child welfare and public health.
Withrow said the county could return the $12.7 million to the state if additional state orders would have a more costly impact locally.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
