Santa Clara County: Daily cases of the virus set record as surge rages

Santa Clara County recorded the most coronavirus cases ever since the start of the pandemic as the state continues to weather a holiday surge that doesn’t appear to have peaked yet.

In addition to increasing its hospital bed capacity, Kaiser is planning to secure travel nurses to help with the higher-than-normal winter hospitalizations.

Officials across the state say 52,309 new cases of the virus were recorded Saturday for a total of 2,099,494, while 239 new deaths brought the overall total to 24,221 dead.

While public health officials in the Bay Area’s most populous county recorded 2,212 new cases of the virus for a total of 63,302 cases, Alameda County — number two in terms of population — recorded its second-highest number of cases since the start of the pandemic with 1,651 new cases for a total of 48,234.

The recent milestones serve as a grim reminder of the pandemic’s unceasing attack on Bay Area residents even as shipments of the new vaccine are making their way to hard-hit hospitals.

Those hospitals are also facing extreme conditions, with many of them reporting low intensive care unit bed counts.

Kaiser Permanente announced Dec. 26 it would postpone “elective and non-urgent surger ies and procedures” through Monday at its hospitals in Northern California as hospitalizations spike.

Tight on staff, Kaiser also is planning to secure travel nurses to help with the higher- than- normal winter hospitalizations.

The Bay Area overall so far has recorded 2,430 new cases as of Saturday for a total of 243,718 cases of the virus, while 15 more people died of the virus the day after Christmas for a total of 2,430 coronavirus deaths.

All of the people who died in the Bay Area on Dec. 26 were in those counties with the highest number of infections, with Alameda County counting six dead and Santa Clara County recording nine dead.

In Contra Costa county, officials reported 528 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, for a total of 38,138 cases and 321 deaths. T hough no one was recorded dead, county officials said 13 people died on Christmas.

In t he f ou r - c ou nt y North Bay, which includes Napa , Solano, Sonoma and Marin counties, officials reported 377 new cases of the virus and one new death. The area is approaching the 50,000- case milestone soon and has recorded 439 deaths.

San Francisco recorded 266 new cases and no new deaths, for a total of 21,975 cases and 181 deaths. San Mateo County recorded no new cases and no new deaths and the count remains at 22,241 coronavirus cases and 212 virus-related deaths.