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Description
County of Santa Clara Director of Health Care Preparedness, Dr. Ahmad Kamal provides an update on the latest COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU capacity numbers.
Recorded December 9, 2020.
The City of Cupertino would like to express its thanks to the County of Santa Clara for the use of their video materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus... of Santa Clara Health officials discuss updates on hospital capacity, vaccine distribution, and travel quarantine.
C
Hi
everyone
thank
you
for
joining
us
today,
so
we
are
going
to
have
dr
ahmad
kamal
today.
Answering
your
questions
and
providing
a
status
update
on
hospital
capacity.
Dr
ahmad
kamal
is
our
director
of
healthcare
preparedness
he'll,
be
making
a
brief
statement,
then
we'll
head
into
q
a
and
then
we'll
wrap
it
up
from
there.
Thank
you.
Everyone.
D
D
D
We
need
to
continue
to
do
everything
we
can
to
stop
the
spread
of
covid.
This
includes
all
the
public
health
measures
that
have
been
outlined
up
till
now.
It
includes
wearing
a
mask.
It
includes
social
distancing.
It
includes
cancelling
all
unnecessary
interaction
with
anyone
outside
of
your
household.
The
hospitals
are
working
together
and
the
county
is
here
for
you
to
make
sure
we
get
through
this
together,
but
we
need
everybody
to
do
their
part
and
stop
the
spread.
Now,
I'm
open
for
questions.
Thank
you.
E
First,
can
we
get
your
reaction
to
regional
medical
reporting
that
they
reached
capacity
yesterday?
I
know
this
is
a
specialized
emergency
room,
but
they
also
told
us.
This
is
the
first
time
since
the
pandemic
was
declared
that
they
reached
capacity.
Is
that
a
troubling
trend,
and
can
you
paint
what
that
might
mean
for
the.
D
Yes,
we
are
very
troubled
by
that
and
I
think
that
what
we
do
know
is.
Regional
medical
center,
in
particular,
is
working
very
closely
with
its
sister
hospital
good
samaritan.
But
then
all
the
hospitals
in
our
county
are
coming
together
to
help
each
other
out,
and
this
is
actually
a
real
bright
spot
in
our
response
to
the
pandemic.
I
am
on
calls
every
day,
with
the
chief
operating
officers
of
each
hospital
to
talk
about
issues
like
this
and
how
we
can
all
band
together
to
support
each
other.
D
A
D
D
Thank
you
for
that
question.
The
question
is
whether
that
number
is
holding
steady
or
if
it's
dropping,
even
more
so
the
number
of
bets
available
changes
on
an
hour-by-hour
basis
as
patients
get
discharged.
We
still
don't
have
the
numbers
in
for
today,
yet
the
hospitals
report
to
us
at
approximately
1
to
2
p.m
every
day,
so
we
should
be
hearing
that
soon.
D
G
D
So
it's
hard
to
predict
an
individual
hospital's
capacity
because,
as
we
mentioned
things
change
on
an
hour
by
hour
basis
and
definitely
by
a
day-to-day
basis,
I
think
the
hospitals
together
do
have
capacity.
They
are
activating
contingency
plans
regarding
bringing
additional
beds
into
service.
So
we're
hopeful
that,
with
this
we're
able
to
manage
the
surge
for
as
long
as
we
can,
but
we
certainly
are
looking
at
all
options,
including
transferring
out
of
the
county,
should
that
become
necessary.
E
D
There
are
two
very
distinct
pictures
out
there.
The
first
is
that
we
continue
to
see
the
level
of
transmission
that
we
have
been
seeing
up
till
now,
in
which
case
we
may
very
well
see
the
pictures
we
saw
in
texas
and
new
york
earlier
on
this
year.
We're
hoping
that-
and
we
are
confident
that,
with
concerted
action,
our
community
can
avoid
that
worst
case
scenario.
E
D
Those
are
all
all
possibilities
I
think
in
terms
of
surge
planning.
The
next
step
is
for
hospitals
to
use
their
internal
plans,
which
is
bringing
additional
beds
into
service,
trying
to
make
icu
beds
in
their
facility
by
adding
equipment
to
existing
beds,
by
bringing
staff
from
less
critical
clinical
areas
to
the
icus
and
to
acute
care
areas,
and
then,
after
that,
to
expand
physical
space
dense
may
be
necessary,
so
we're
still
not
imminently
there.
But
once
again
the
trajectory
is
concerning
enough
that
we
do
need
to
take
steps
immediately.
A
D
Great
question:
the
question
is
a
hard
number,
so
hospitals
do
have
the
ability
to
search
and
expand
and
that
ability
is
finite.
At
this
point,
the
real
rate
limiting
step
is
around
staffing,
and
so
the
hospitals
are
working
very
hard
and
trying
to
get
staffing
from
staffing
agencies
from
within
their
own
organizations.
H
D
This
is
absolutely
the
worst
we
have
seen
by
an
order
of
magnitude.
We
are
in
a
much
worse
state
right
now
than
we
were
in
the
summer
or
the
spring,
both
in
terms
of
the
absolute
numbers
we
are
seeing
and
the
rate
of
increase
we
are
seeing
opening
up
an
alternate
parasite
is
definitely
one
of
the
options.
D
D
D
I
think
the
best
way
to
do
is
to
talk
to
the
hospitals,
which
we
do
every
day,
the
hospitals
and
the
caregivers
and
the
nurses
and
the
doctors
are
telling
us
they
are
at
their
limit.
They
are
telling
us
they
are
overwhelmed.
Having
worked
in
a
hospital
for
most
of
my
life,
I
know
what
it's
like
taking
care
of
patients,
and
I
know
what
it's
like
when
hospitals
get
full
at
that
point.
Not
only
are
covet
patients
going
to
be
stretching
the
hospitals,
but
patients
with
other
conditions
will
have
fewer
resources
available
to
them.
D
D
So
the
ems
does
have
a
diversion
system
which
depends
on
their
emergency
room
capacity
and
that's
currently
in
places
it's
always
been.
We
haven't
put
any
hospitals
on
permanent
diversion
because,
as
we
mentioned,
the
situation
changes
hour
by
hour
and
day
by
day,
so
it's
hard
to
know
whether
or
not
we
can.
We
should
do
that
for
a
long
term
period.
D
Regarding
your
second
question
regarding
elective
surgeries,
at
this
point,
many
hospitals
have
cancelled
elective
surgeries.
We
have
not
put
out
a
blanket
order
at
this
point.
One
of
the
things
to
realize
is
that
surgeries
that
are
elective
may
still
be
quite
necessary.
These
could
include
cancer
surgeries.
D
Would
just
like
to
say
thank
you
for
this
question.
Thank
you
for
this
opportunity
to
discuss
our
numbers
and,
as
we
mentioned
at
this
point,
we
have
two
very
different
futures
ahead
of
us.
One
future
is
if
we
continue
the
rate
of
transmission,
we
may
see
the
worst
case
scenarios
that
were
realized
in
italy
in
new
york
in
texas
and
other
countries.
The
other
future
is
that
we
make
a
commitment
with
each
other
and
to
ourselves
right
now
to
do
what
we
can
to
stop
the
spread.