Stanislaus County medical centers are stressed by explosion of coronavirus cases.
A recent explosion of coronavirus cases continues to send patients to hospitals in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Hospitals in Stanislaus County were caring for 170 patients afflicted with COVID-19 last week until the number dipped to 167 on Friday. No less than 52 of those patients were in intensive care units for an ICU admission rate (9.2 per 100,000 population) that was highest in California, according to state data.
Hospitals like Doctors, Memorial and Kaiser Modesto medical centers are running out of ICU beds for adults. Stanislaus, a medium-size county with 557,700 residents, hasn’t counted on neighboring San Joaquin County for extra bed space. San Joaquin is also a hot spot and had 189 COVID patients in hospital beds with 49 in intensive care.
A spokesperson for Sutter Health, which oversees Memorial in Modesto, said Friday the hospital has added more nurses for patient care as COVID-19 cases increase locally.
Stanislaus County officials have pointed out that hospitals are not just caring for older patients with COVID-19. Slightly more than half of the hospitalized patients are age 60 or younger. About a third are age 50 and under.
Almost 2,500 people in Stanislaus County have tested positive for coronavirus in the past two weeks, a sign of widespread infection. County Supervisor Vito Chiesa, who watches the numbers daily, said he believes part of the recent surge was spawned by Fourth of July parties and that should result in residents coming down with symptoms over a two-week period.
“This trend is not going to slow down,” Chiesa said. “On Fourth of July, you saw a lot of people having parties. ... People need to take this seriously. It’s for real.”
Residents in the 18 to 49 age group account for 59 percent of the county’s cases. That age group is given the better odds of riding out the illness featuring high fevers, a cough, body aches and trouble breathing. Twenty percent of cases are in the 50 to 64 age group and seniors 65 and older represent 13 percent of cases.
About 60 percent of the time people contract the illness from someone they know, such as family members at home. County data shows about 40 percent of cases are community transmission, up from 25 percent in April.
County public health officials reported another death Friday, bringing the total to 51.
With 4,633 total cases, Stanislaus is now in the top 15 counties in California most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, above much larger counties like Contra Costa and San Francisco. It’s among the smaller counties where the coronavirus has taken a heavy toll on low-income neighborhoods and ethnic communities.
Two zip code areas covering west and south Modesto and Ceres have generated more than 900 cases. According to the county, more than 70 percent of people who have tested positive are Latino.
The county is preparing to roll out a broader outreach and education effort targeting hard-hit neighborhoods next week.
This story was originally published July 11, 2020 at 7:05 AM.
