[M T]

As bad as things are in LA County case-wise, their ICU situation (4.35 available ICU beds/100K people) is better than both San Mateo(3.77) and Santa Clara(1.81). One wonders if ICU beds is a good metric by itself. If Reff is significantly above 1, as BC has pointed out you will eventually exceed any limit you set. Why wait? Crush the curve now before you hit the stops.

That statistic ICU Beds/100K  doesn't take into account the true population filling those beds.  If Stanford hospital is taking some patients from (say) Tuolumne County, using SCC's population for the divisor isn't correct.   (That doesn't make the situation any less dire.)

The numbers are squishy.  SCC had 9.5% more staffed ICU beds today than 3 days earlier, with only 3 more COVID ICU patients, but the problem was the 36 more non-COVID patients in the ICU.   The ICU % available staffed beds is being (appropriately) adjusted by the administrators according to the load.

In SCC, 0.00482% (93) of the county's population are COVID patients in the ICU.
In LAC, 0.00898% (843) of the population of L.A.County (excluding Pasadena & Long Beach) are COVID patients in the ICU.


The brakes haven't yet helped.  SCC R is about 1.6 today.  LA County is 1.55.  California has the highest R among the states at 1.53.

[M T]

As bad as things are in LA County case-wise, their ICU situation (4.35 available ICU beds/100K people) is better than both San Mateo(3.77) and Santa Clara(1.81). One wonders if ICU beds is a good metric by itself. If Reff is significantly above 1, as BC has pointed out you will eventually exceed any limit you set. Why wait? Crush the curve now before you hit the stops.

That statistic ICU Beds/100K  doesn't take into account the true population filling those beds.  If Stanford hospital is taking some patients from (say) Tuolumne County, using SCC's population for the divisor isn't correct.   (That doesn't make the situation any less dire.)

The numbers are squishy.  SCC had 9.5% more staffed ICU beds today than 3 days earlier, with only 3 more COVID ICU patients, but the problem was the 36 more non-COVID patients in the ICU.   The ICU % available staffed beds is being (appropriately) adjusted by the administrators according to the load.

In SCC, 0.00482% (93) of the county's population are COVID patients in the ICU.
In LAC, 0.00898% (843) of the population of L.A.County (excluding Pasadena & Long Beach) are COVID patients in the ICU.


The brakes haven't yet helped.  SCC R is about 1.6 today.  LA County is 1.55.  California has the highest R among the states at 1.53.