Ventura County hospitals prepared for COVID-19 patients despite recent surge
VENTURA, Calif. - Ventura County leaders say despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, hospitals are prepared and ready for future spikes.
94 new COVID-19 cases were announced during the county's weekly briefing Wednesday, bringing the total to 6,049.
Ventura County Public Health Director Rigo Vargas said demand for testing is skyrocketing. He said roughly 12 percent of the county's population had been tested for the coronavirus at some point since March.
90 people were hospitalized as of Wednesday, including 22 in the intensive care unit. Both numbers were down slightly compared to recent days, but up significantly from what the county had been seeing in the earlier part of the pandemic.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has more than quadrupled in the past six weeks, according to Ventura County Emergency Services Agency administrator, Steve Carroll. He says the average 6 weeks ago was 20 hospitalizations, while last week the county peaked at 101.
"The number of COVID-positive patients within the hospital census has increased, which takes up a lot more resources of our hospital personnel and staff," said Carroll.
Carroll said while there were 90 confirmed COVID-19 related hospitalizations, another 30 hospital patients were suspected to have COVID-19, but were awaiting test results.
Despite the recent surge, he assured people the county is ready.
"It is very serious. We're very concerned about the hospitals as this increase does task their resources, however, they are fully capable of handling this current surge. Our hospitals report 119 staffed and available beds this morning," said Carroll.
He said hospitals also have additional space and surge capacity beds that are not in use right now, but that could be used if needed. "Hospitals are monitoring and making adjustments as needed, but right now we're stable and our hospitals are doing well."
Ventura County Executive Officer, Mike Powers, echoed that sentiment.
"We've had a surge and even though it was a strain on the system, (hospitals) were ready. They were ready because they were prepared, and they handled it," said Powers. "It's not one day that matters, it's the trend. But collectively, we are going to bring these numbers down."
Carroll also spent time talking about first responders who may come into contact with people who have COVID-19.
"Our 911 dispatchers continue to screen calls for any symptoms that would be suspect of COVID. They alert our responders prior to arrival so our responders are prepared and safe," said Carroll. "Volume is actually back to nearly the same call volume as before COVID after a significant reduction for several months."
First responders wear full protective equipment on all emergency calls, conduct daily screenings for any symptoms, and they're sent home immediately if they show any signs of illness. Carroll said most first responders who had been exposed to COVID-19 were off-duty at the time, but some exposures had happened while on-duty.
During Wednesday's briefing, an epidemiologist also spoke to explain how the county is doing when it comes to meeting certain state markers, which include the average number of daily tests, case rate, and available ventilators. These determine whether a county is placed on the state's COVID-19 watch list, which currently includes Ventura County.
The county is on watch list because the 14-day case rate exceeds the state's threshold of less than 100 per 100,000 people.
"In order to reach the threshold, the county would need to report less than 60 cases per day," said Erin Slack, an epidemiologist with the Ventura County Public Health Department. "As we increased our testing capacity, we expected that the case rate would also increase in Ventura County."
Slack said the county had also previously been flagged for the number of hospitalizations, but it was not currently on the state's watch list for that reason. She said reasons for a spike in hospitalizations can include outbreaks in longterm care facilities, longer hospital stays, accepting patient transfers from other counties, and older adults and those with underlying health conditions being infected.
The county so far has not been flagged for its ICU capacity, however, Slack said that could change because the state is changing the way it measures that threshold. She said the state is going to stop counting neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, beds in the ICU capacity total, which could mean Ventura County is flagged down the line.
The county holds its weekly COVID-19 briefings every Wednesday at 1 p.m. You can watch live on the NewsChannel 3 mobile app and website.
