[M T]

Hospitalizations in Santa Clara County have more than doubled in the past week to 83 hospitalized and 32 in the ICU.
. . .
We are still a long ways off from places like Orange County, which has 175 people in the ICU, but still, I feel like the thread should be re-named:
What's happening in NORTHERN California. (YIKES for SCC!)

California's Step 2 (Targeted Engagement with CDPH) has this for Santa Clara County (I added italics)

Santa Clara County is experiencing increasing hospitalization. Drivers of increased hospitalization may include

    1) increased testing of county residents and individuals from neighboring counties who seek hospital care in Santa Clara County, resulting in an increase of COVID+ patients admitted for observation and treatment;
    2) patient transfers from outside the county;
    3) patient transfers from long term care facilities; and/or increased transmission among residents or individuals from neighboring counties who seek care in hospitals in Santa Clara County.

Although the percentage change in hospitalizations shows an increase, the increase in the absolute number of patients hospitalized is low relative to the size of the population in Santa Clara County and is low relative to the number of hospital beds available in the County.

Key actions to address the increase include
    1) coordination and communication between the local health department and hospitals in the county experiencing increases, to identify underlying causes,
    2) data collection from hospitals that serve large proportions of out-of-jurisdiction patients to identify county of residence,
    3) coordination and communication between the local health department and long term care facilities to support these facilities with caring for residents with confirmed COVID-19 when appropriate to avoid transfer to the hospital, and
    4) increased public messaging, in multiple languages, on the importance of personal protection measures and the risks involved with mass gatherings.

I believe the testing numbers MAY mostly be from SCC, but the above suggests that some of the hospitalized patients may have been transfers from other counties (Imperial County reportedly transferred patients to the Bay Area), and some may be from other counties (potentially Bay Area or maybe Santa Cruz, Monterey, ...) that came to Stanford Hospital for its renowned care or other big hospitals that have more resources than the more rural counties.

So, SCC's hospitalization numbers may not accurately reflect hospitalization of individuals from the county.  If you're worried about how many beds are available, they're the right numbers.  But if you're using hospitalization as a proxy for how widespread is COVID in SCC, the numbers are apparently not right.  If Action #2 is done, maybe we'll have the right numbers for that..

(From Sunday to Monday, there were 6 new LTCF cases and 1 hospitalization.)

[M T]

Hospitalizations in Santa Clara County have more than doubled in the past week to 83 hospitalized and 32 in the ICU.
. . .
We are still a long ways off from places like Orange County, which has 175 people in the ICU, but still, I feel like the thread should be re-named:
What's happening in NORTHERN California. (YIKES for SCC!)

California's Step 2 (Targeted Engagement with CDPH) has this for Santa Clara County (I added italics)

Santa Clara County is experiencing increasing hospitalization. Drivers of increased hospitalization may include

    1) increased testing of county residents and individuals from neighboring counties who seek hospital care in Santa Clara County, resulting in an increase of COVID+ patients admitted for observation and treatment;
    2) patient transfers from outside the county;
    3) patient transfers from long term care facilities; and/or increased transmission among residents or individuals from neighboring counties who seek care in hospitals in Santa Clara County.

Although the percentage change in hospitalizations shows an increase, the increase in the absolute number of patients hospitalized is low relative to the size of the population in Santa Clara County and is low relative to the number of hospital beds available in the County.

Key actions to address the increase include
    1) coordination and communication between the local health department and hospitals in the county experiencing increases, to identify underlying causes,
    2) data collection from hospitals that serve large proportions of out-of-jurisdiction patients to identify county of residence,
    3) coordination and communication between the local health department and long term care facilities to support these facilities with caring for residents with confirmed COVID-19 when appropriate to avoid transfer to the hospital, and
    4) increased public messaging, in multiple languages, on the importance of personal protection measures and the risks involved with mass gatherings.

I believe the testing numbers MAY mostly be from SCC, but the above suggests that some of the hospitalized patients may have been transfers from other counties (Imperial County reportedly transferred patients to the Bay Area), and some may be from other counties (potentially Bay Area or maybe Santa Cruz, Monterey, ...) that came to Stanford Hospital for its renowned care or other big hospitals that have more resources than the more rural counties.

So, SCC's hospitalization numbers may not accurately reflect hospitalization of individuals from the county.  If you're worried about how many beds are available, they're the right numbers.  But if you're using hospitalization as a proxy for how widespread is COVID in SCC, the numbers are apparently not right.  If Action #2 is done, maybe we'll have the right numbers for that..

(From Sunday to Monday, there were 6 new LTCF cases and 1 hospitalization.)