CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) - The Contra Costa County Public Health Department says hospital surge levels are moderate and that the county has not reached a tipping point yet but the numbers are changing hourly.
"We're struggling to add capacity for COVID patients as we speak,” Greg Adams said.
Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Greg Adams say his health system is over 100-percent of its usual volume of patients, adding that 52-percent of all in-patients have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
"Our efforts to date include adding in-patient beds in surgery, in our recovery rooms, in our comforts rooms, in our hallways and alike,” Adams said.
Dr. Steven Parodi is based in the East Bay.
He is the associate executive director of the Permanente Medical Group for Kaiser Permanente.
He says the health system's Bay Area intensive care units are at around 85-percent capacity.
"We have over 130 patients that are on mechanical ventilators with COVID. These are numbers that are unprecedented -- never seen before," Dr. Parodi said.
Parodi says staffing levels are also at a critical point.
Traveling nurses are in short supply because of high demand across the states and they are also thinking twice about hopping on a plane.
"Some nurses are reluctant to travel because there is risk in traveling right at this time. So, it's a combination of two things that are really leading to this shortage of staff," Dr. Parodi said.
Overall in Contra Costa County, health services say 238 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 out of the nearly two-thousand patients receiving care for the virus in the Bay Area.
12.2-percent of ICU beds are available countywide, up from a low of 8.6-percent on Friday.
133 ICU beds are occupied. 29 ICU beds are available.
If things reach a critical point where the health system is overwhelmed, health services say it can open alternate sites in Richmond and Concord.
That would add about 450 beds.
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