Once again, the usual bad news from the county I live in. Not that I believe any of it. All three hospitals are big - over 200 beds each. Don't believe they have staffing issues unless they laid people off earlier.
In good news, my son and his wife, safely back in the USA (Texas), are looking to buy their first house. Plenty of places in their price range. Both are working.
AS MONTEREY COUNTY'S CASES SURGE, HOSPITAL MAKES URGENT PLEA
• SVMH says it has record number of coronavirus patients
With Monterey County's coronavirus cases reaching levels not seen since mid-August, today the spokesperson for Salinas Valley Memorial said the hospital had so many patients infected with the virus, its resources were being tested.
"Today we hit a sobering milestone in the pandemic," said SVMH spokesperson Karina Rusk. "We have a record 32 patients in our hospital in three Covid units. We have enough beds, ventilators and PPE. Our key concern is our staff."
Some of the responsibility for the county's dramatic increase in coronavirus cases over the last six weeks lies with the public, she indicated, and things could get even worse over Thanksgiving.
"Like most other medical professionals across the country, members of our staff are tired of seeing a needless number of people infected with Covid-19 and an increase in the number of people dying from the virus," Rusk said.
She released
a pair of videos in which she said "our frontline workers make one last appeal before the holiday to urge people to be safe and limit family gatherings."
While SVMH's coronavirus inpatients are at record levels, the county's other hospitals also have their hands full. CHOMP said this morning it has 14 coronavirus inpatients, and Natividad reported 23.
The hospitalizations are moving higher in concert with what can only be called a shocking surge in the county's raw case numbers. Today, the Monterey County health department reported 315 new confirmed infections — the county's second-highest daily toll ever. Our 7-day average rate of new cases per day per 100,000 residents is up to 32.0; on August 23, that number was 9.3.
And in what is almost a footnote, today the California Department of Public Health released an updated coronavirus score for Monterey County of 18.7. On Nov. 4, the county's score was 7.9, which was tantalizingly — but fleetingly — close to the governor's target of 7.0 to move out of the
Purple Tier in the state's shutdown scheme.
Meanwhile, as the country buzzes and the stock market surges amid reports of vaccines being approved within a few weeks by the FDA, and talk that the first doses could be administered to the public by mid-December, we have no solid information about when coronavirus vaccines will be available here. As soon as this information emerges, we will report it to you.
For details about Monterey County's shutdown status, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, click
here. To see the most up-to-date charts and tables from the county health department, click
here. Below, you can also find the updated versions of our charts showing coronavirus infections countywide and in the Monterey Peninsula, along with the data for hospitalizations and our chart breaking down Monterey County's coronavirus cases and infection rates by zip code. Please check these charts and tables for the latest data on coronavirus cases in your community.
Here's a mug shot of Karina Rusk after being pulled over for DUI last year. She used to be on the local news here years ago. No, I just don't give a fuck any more.