Coronavirus Pandemic: San Mateo County Health Official Announce 4 New Deaths
REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) -- Health officials announced four new coronavirus deaths Tuesday among San Mateo County residents 60-years-old or older.
Officials did not announce any new positive results for the virus with the county's total of confirmed cases remaining at 309. The new fatalities pushed the death toll in the 10 counties of the San Francisco Bay Area to 60. There have been 2,274 confirmed cases region wide since mid-January.
According to the San Mateo County coronavirus dashboard, the county's death toll was at 10 with all the victims being 60 years old or older. Of those deaths, six have been women -- opposite the trend of male dominated deaths in nearby Santa Clara County.
Bracing for a surge of patients, the National Guard has unpacked a cache of medical supplies and equipment in order to establish an emergency field hospital at the San Mateo County Event Center.
The initial delivery came Sunday night, and the soldiers will be site through Tuesday according to a statement from the San Mateo County Joint Information Center. Once finished, the event center will have capacity for 250 "low acuity beds".
"The latest projections estimate that a medical surge could push the hospitals in our county to capacity and we'll need another location to house patients requiring particular levels of care," said County Manager Mike Callagy, in the statement. "We can't just wait to see if this will happen. We need to prepare now so that we can be ready to care for our friends, neighbors and loved ones when they need it most."
San Mateo County will be one of eight such locations to have temporary expanded hospital capacity. The sites will serve the overflow of non-COVID-19 patients.
