Santa Clara County ICU COVID Archives - The anesthesia consultant

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Physician anesthesiologist at Stanford at Associated Anesthesiologists Medical Group

Richard Novak, MD is a Stanford physician board certified in anesthesiology and internal medicine.Dr. Novak is an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University, the Medical Director at Waverley Surgery Center in Palo Alto, California, and a member of the Associated Anesthesiologists Medical Group in Palo Alto, California.
emailrjnov@yahoo.com

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Questions I’m frequently asked are, “What is the coronavirus census in your hospital?” or “How full is your hospital with COVID patients?”

I work in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The six counties of the Bay Area were placed in shelter-at-home relatively early, on March 16^th during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The answer to the hospital COVID-19 census question is shown in the graph below, available to the public as part of a video lecture on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Grand Rounds-Stanford Department of Medicine, posted on YouTube on April 1, 2020.

This data is from March 30, 2020. The magnified picture is fuzzy, but please squint hard and examine the three circles. The good news is the total numbers are not high. The first green circle highlights that Stanford Hospital had a total of 15 COVID patients, and there were only 8 COVID patients in the ICU. Regional Hospital in San Jose had the highest numbers, with a total of 38 COVID patients and 20 COVID patients in the ICU. The total for all nine hospitals listed in Santa Clara County was 154 COVID patients, with 72 COVID patients in the ICU. The population of Santa Clara County is 2 million.

These numbers are in contrast to the situation in New York City, where there are 11,739 COVID patients hospitalized. The population of New York City is 8.6 million.

Why are Santa Clara County’s numbers so low? Part of the reason is that the six counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes Santa Clara County, ordered shelter-in-place early, on Monday March 16^th, 2020.

New York City ordered shelter in place on March 20^th, 2020.

Another reason may be that California population is less dense than in New York City. Santa Clara County’s area is 1304 square miles, compared to 302 square miles for New York City. Most people in Santa Clara County live in houses. Open spaces abound between most residences. In New York City the populace lives in tighter quarters, with many residences in vertical apartments or condominiums. It’s likely easier to share virus contact in New York City. But no doubt there are other reasons for the magnitude of the outbreak in New York City which are not clear at this time.

From the White House, Dr. Deborah Birx praised California and Washington state for their prompt response to the COVID crisis, and commented that New York and New Jersey had lagged in their response.

Stay tuned, but right now in Santa Clara County, in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, hospitalized COVID-19 numbers are magnitudes lower than New York City.