Santa Clara County Hospitals Besieged; COVID Cases Soar, Filling Up Beds And ICUs
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- Cases continued to surge in Santa Clara County Saturday with hospitalizations growing by 72 patients and the ICU availability dropping to 12 percent, well below the state's red line of 15 percent.
According to the county's COVID dashboard, there were 1,172 new cases reported with 72 additional hospitalizations and seven new deaths on Friday.
If history is any judge, the wave of new hospitalizations will continue to soar.
"We know from historic data that about 10 percent of individuals diagnosed with COVID will need hospitalization," said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, Santa Clara County's Director of Health Care Preparedness.
The county, which has already sent the San Francisco 49ers, Stanford Cardinal and San Jose State Spartans packing because of the latest wave of COVID restrictions, was also wrestling with a new major outbreak traced to a Placer County youth basketball tournament.
So far there have been 77 cases in Santa Clara County linked to the tourney.
According to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, the outbreak was linked to teams from a South Bay youth program that traveled to Placer County for a tournament that took place on November 7 and 8. Officials said the tournament took place indoors, with players in close contact.
Following the tournament, 33 of the 37 players and all three coaches from the Santa Clara County teams tested positive.
As of Friday, the outbreak has infected 39 youth players, three coaches and 35 additional contacts in Santa Clara County, health officials said. An additional 17 cases have been found in other counties so far.
"Public Health orders, directives, and guidance around contact sports and sporting events are in place for a reason. The risk of transmission in these settings can easily result in community spread that threatens the most vulnerable among us," said Dr. Monika Roy, the county's assistant public health officer.
Santa Clara County Public Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody, who has placed a three-week ban on all contact sports in the county, said in a statement, "We risk continued, uncontrolled spread of the disease throughout our community and even more loss of life if we don't each do absolutely everything we can to limit contact with anyone outside of our own household."
Health officials also said the youth basketball program failed to timely and properly report the initial positive cases among staff and players. The private basketball program, which includes middle- and high school-aged players, has been cited by county officials.
The California Department of Public Health has initiated an enforcement investigation involving the tournament operator, health officials said.
