COVID hospitalizations hit new low in state

After a brutal winter coronavirus surge that left thousands dead and hospitals under siege, COVID-19 patients in California have hit a record low.

This week, Golden State hospitals are treating the fewest number of coronavirus patients since the pandemic began, a dramatic turnaround that experts say is evidence of the power of vaccines and an easing of the transmission rates that gripped the state just two months ago.

Back then, hospitals here scrambled to make room for the gravely ill. Hallways jammed with patients waiting for care. Doctors and nurses jostled elbow-to-elbow.

But now, the crush of COVID-19 patients has eased so much that beds are empty for hours at a time most mornings, said Dr. Paul Silka, director of emergency medicine at San Jose’s Regional Medical Center.

“We never say ‘quiet’ in the emergency medicine world, because that throws your whole night off — it curses you,” Silka said. “But I’ve been going around saying, ‘It’s quiet, it’s quiet. It’s slow.’ “

But any temptation to declare victory based off the plummeting case and hospitalization rates is tempered by what’s happening elsewhere in the country, experts say: From New Jersey to Michigan, states are reporting alarming infection and hospitalization rates — a trend that California health officials are carefully watching.

There were 2,826 patients confirmed or suspected to be sick with coronavirus in California hospitals as of Wednesday, breaking the previous record low of 2,969 reported on Oct. 24, 2020. California is now reporting the fewest patients since available hospitalization data from the California Department of Public Health starting April 1, when 5,394 COVID-19 patients were reported.

It’s not clear when COVID-19 hospitalizations in California were last under 2,800 patients, because in the first month of the pandemic — as the virus began spreading in the community — testing was still severely limited.

This record new low comes as the state has administered more than 16 million vaccine doses. Experts credit some of the record low numbers to the efforts to vaccinate California’s oldest residents, along with health care workers, and those most at risk of getting severely ill and hospitalized. As of Thursday, just over 11 million Californians are at least partially or fully vaccinated.

While the virus has infected over 3.6 million residents and killed more than 56,000 Californians, daily cases and deaths likewise continue trending downward since their winter peaks.

As more older people in nursing homes, prisoners and others in congregate living facilities receive the vaccine — the same groups that tend to make up the bulk of hospitalizations — the less likely it becomes for the health care system to become overburdened, said Dr. Peter ChinHong, an epidemiologist with University of California, San Francisco.

“It’s a clear sign that the vaccine is working,” Chin-Hong said. “We still will get hospitalizations and deaths — but hopefully not ever again like the other surges, particularly the winter surge.”