Hospitalization data show wide variation in state

Health officials in California are closely monitoring heaps of data — including the number of people hospitalized by the coronavirus — as they discuss when and how to ease social restrictions. A handful of counties have already started to loosen some rules, opening parks and allowing more outdoor activities, while others are waiting for cases to drop further.

A Chronicle review of state data found wide variance in the number of patients with COVID19. Some counties had few to no people in the hospital due to the disease Thursday, while others reported hundreds of cases.

Deciding how to reopen such a large and diverse state will be painstaking, with officials carefully balancing economic, social and public health needs. Several state and local politicians have asked for leeway in choosing when and how to ease shelterinplace policies, citing low case and hospital counts and weeks spent buttressing their health care system.

But some experts said a patchwork response could create problems if not done carefully.

Almost every county in California has at least one confirmed case of the coronavirus, but the number of people in the hospital with the virus has been growing in some parts of the state and declining in others.

Confirmed cases in Bay Area, Sacramento and Central Coast hospitals have remained flat or fallen for much of April. Meanwhile, the number of patients in hospitals increased in many parts of Southern California over the same period before showing signs of leveling off more recently.

The number of hospital patients per capita in some rural counties in Northern California and the Sierra has remained low or nonexistent, but there have been local outbreaks, including one in the towns around Lake Tahoe. Some public health experts have warned that if the virus were to take hold in smaller communities, it could be devastating due to more limited beds, equipment and medical staff in rural hospitals.