San Joaquin County’s COVID hospitalizations on the rise

Two weeks ago, the county’s new COVID-19 case rate had exceeded the peak of the 2020 summer surge, reaching nearly 50 per 100,000 residents.

While the case rate has begun to decline since then, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have continued to increase.

According to the California Department of Public Health, San Joaquin County’s new case rate was 41 per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday. However, hospitalizations were as high as 308 on Sept. 1, and as of Monday were at 270, higher than last summer’s peak of 269.

There were 34 people in seven hospitals throughout the county when the state reopened its economy.

According to a Sept. 1 hospital report from San Joaquin County Emergency Medical Services, there were 74 patients being treated for COVID-19 in an intensive care unit, accounting for 55% of ICU beds in the county.

The agency also reported that there were 45 patients being treated for COVID19 at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, with 63% of its ICU beds being used for COVID patients.

The CDPH reported that as of Tuesday, there were only eight ICU beds available among the seven hospitals.

“All hospitals in the county have been experiencing an increase in patients recently,” Adventist Health and Dameron Hospital spokesman Scott Nariyoshi said on Tuesday.

“But those increases are not necessarily attributed to COVID,” he said. “The numbers are high for a variety of reasons, be it a heart attack, injury or some other sickness.”

Nariyoshi said Adventist Health has dispatched a number of traveling nurses to Lodi Memorial to assist with the increase in patients.

He added that all hospitals in the county report patient increases to county public health, which in turn tries to find available beds for those needing care.

“If someone gets sick and needs a bed for whatever reason, public health will find them a bed,” he said. “They are going to be taken care of.”

At Dameron Hospital, which is now managed by Adventist Health, there were 18 patients being treated for COVID. In its ICU, 55% of beds were occupied with COVID patients, according to EMS.

While hospitalizations increase, the county’s test positivity rate is slowly decreasing. As of Tuesday, the CDPH said the county’s test positivity was 7.3%, down from 8.1% last week.

San Joaquin County Public Health Services reported that as of Sept. 3, some 347,614 residents, or 53.5% of the eligible population, had been fully vaccinated.

In Lodi, 33,631 people, or 62.4% of the population, was fully vaccinated.

Lodi High School sent a phone message out late Tuesday announcing that there was a confirmed positive test on campus in recent days.

According to the Lodi Unified School District’s confirmed exposures page at www.lodiusd.net, there were 232 exposures reported in August, and 22 so far in September.

Of the August exposures, three were at the James Areida Educational Support Center, and three were in the transportation, warehouse and maintenance departments. Of the exposures reported this month, one was in the child welfare attendance department.

There were only 34 exposures reported across the district in April when students initially returned to campus to finish the 2020-21 school year.

There have been 89,293 total COVID-19 cases and 1,548 deaths in San Joaquin County since the pandemic began in March of 2020.

County public health officials will update the board of supervisors next Tuesday.