Health officials prepare to store vaccine
SANTA CRUZ >> As local hospital ICU capacity rates improve Monday, it is unknown if or when Santa Cruz County will enter into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Regional Stay-At-Home order.
T hou g h Sa nt a Cr u z County health experts anticipated that the county’s region in relation to the order — the Bay Area region — would shut down nonessential operations Monday, the area still showed an ICU capacity of more than 16% prior to the release of new numbers to come in the afternoon. At approximately 1 p.m., the state’s COVID-19 page showed 17.8% ICU availability, keeping the region out of the zone for now.
The order, introduced Dec. 3, breaks the state down into five regions and goes into effect at midnight the day after a region has been announced to have less than 15% ICU capacity. Once a region enters the order, it remains under its restrictions for at least three weeks. Then, projected ICU capacity is studied again.
A region can only leave the order if the projected capacity meets or exceeds 15%, according to the order’s language. The regions will be assessed on a weekly basis after the three-week period passes.
Due to their dwindling ICU capacities, the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California and the Greater Sacramento regions were forced to enter into the order on Dec. 6 and Dec. 10. But five counties and one city in the Bay Area region — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties and the city of Berkeley ( host to its own public health department) — elected not to wait.
With nearby Monterey County officials choosing late last week to enter the order before capacity dropped, county spokesman Jason Hoppin said before the updated hospital data was released that County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel would look at it and decide on whether it is wise to prohibit private gatherings of any size and close sector operations except for critical infrastructure and retail on top of mandating social distancing and other hygiene requirements to stop the second surge. Just after the new ICU capacity number was recorded for the region, Hoppin was unsure whether the county would follow the lead of other Bay Area counties or wait until the order automatically went into place based on low capacity.
According to the California Department of Public Health’s updated statewide metrics, the county — still in the purple or “widespread” tier in the state’s coronavirus measurement model with 53 other counties, or 99.9% of the state’s population — has recorded 24.7 new COVID-19 cases per day per 100,000 people. Santa Cruz County is currently recording a 5.6% positivity rate over a seven- day average. These numbers are lower than the state’s average of 34 new COVID-19 cases per day per 100,000 people and an 8.4% positivity rate over a seven- day average.
If the ICU capacity does dip down to less than 15% in the region, surge facilities that have been kept “warm” — terminolog y used by Newsom to describe additional medical facilities that are ready for patients but not yet necessary for use — may need to be a factor in the equation of treating COVID-19 patients. In Santa Cruz County, there is a local surge plan, Hoppin said. The issue is staffing.
“There’s nothing special about a bed,” Hoppin said of any jurisdiction’s capability to turn a normal hospital bed into an ICU hospital bed given the resources. “You can go up and down depending on equipment, if you have nurses. You basically need a 1:1 ratio, a new nurse for every new bed. But we are dealing with a situation where the surge is affecting all corners of the state, of the country.”
Hoppin said that there is no slack left in the system to pick up and staff areas that need additional beds.
If the ICU capacity does dip down to less than 15% in the region, surge facilities that have been kept “warm” — terminology used by Newsom to describe additional medical facilities that are ready for patients but not yet necessary for use — may need to be a factor in the equation of treating COVID-19 patients.
Preparing for a new era
As county health officials waited Monday morning, they were planning for the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine — a delivery scheduled to take place Tuesday. It won’t be a huge box, Hoppin said.
Each vial in the box will contain five doses; in total, the county is initially receiving 1,950 doses.
T hese doses will be stored at a degree so low below celsius that it’s compared to dry ice, Hoppin said. In correlation with handling procedures, the doses will come to county health officials first before dispersal. At a certain time, doses will be distributed to Dominican and Watsonville Community hospitals.
It ’ s k nown that the doses will go to hospital workers first, but it is currently unknown who will receive the first vaccine, when and where it will take place. The person will be a healthcare worker who is exposed to the virus through their job, Hoppin said.