For the first time in memory almost all of the beds at Doctors Hospital of Manteca are in use.

The San Joaquin County Medical Emergency Services reported on Thursday that 71 of the available 73 beds at Doctors Hospital are occupied. That includes 32 COVID patients of which 8 are using ICU beds.

Doctors Hospital was forced to press other beds into ICU use as they now have 11 overall patients in ICU care. That puts Doctors Hospital at 138 percent capacity based on the number of their state licensed ICU beds. That is the highest capacity in the county.

Kaiser Hospital Manteca has 34 of its 99 beds filled with 13 of them being COVID patients and 5 in the ICU.

On Wednesday Doctors Hospital received vaccines allowing frontline staff members to get additional protection against COVID-19.

Spokesperson Krista Deans said they are hopeful Doctors Hospital will be able to immunize all healthcare workers working in areas that are high risk for COVID exposures in the first few weeks of immunizations, with all healthcare workers vaccinated following behind those at high-risk. 

 “The most effective safety measures we can take against COVID-19 continue to be wearing a mask, washing our hands, and maintaining social distance,” Deans said. “These measures are important during the holidays as we continue to see a surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations.”

A record 5,475 people in San Joaquin County as of Friday  have tested positive for COVID-19.

That reflects a 15 percent positive testing rate.

To give you an idea how severe that number is more than an 8 percent positive rate is what pushed San Joaquin County into the highest color of the four-tiers — purple — late last month to allow only outside dining only from the red tier that allowed restaurants a 25 percent indoor dining capacity.

Two weeks ago the current surge hit prompting Gov. Newsom to abandon the four tier system for now in favor of a lockdown that resembles what was put in place when the pandemic emergency was first declared in mid-March where restaurants are limited to takeout and delivery.

In order for San Joaquin County to get back to the purple tier, the positive test rate of less than 8 percent — one of the required measurements — would require no more than 52 people testing positive in a day.

Positive cases during the past five days were all more than four times higher than the 52 threshold. They were 718 on Sunday, 752 on Monday, 609 on Tuesday, 549 on Wednesday, and 209 on Thursday. Four of the five days surpassed the one-day high mark of 535 new positive cases on Aug. 8 during the initial COVID-19 surge.

Manteca, as of Wednesday, has had 3,214 people test positive for COVID-19 since March. That reflects an infection rate of 37.8 people per 1,000 residents.

 Stockton had the highest number of people infected since the start of the pandemic and the highest infection rate that are 16,191 and 50.8 respectively. Next is Lodi at 3,274 and 48.1, Lathrop at 1,084 and 40.3, Escalon at 294 and 39.3, Manteca at 3,214 and 37.8, unincorporated parts of the county at 6,352 and 37.7, Ripon at 583 and 36.5, and Tracy at 3,480 and 36.2.

 There have been 561 deaths countywide so far. That reflects 1.5 percent of those that test positive.

 Cases have numbered 36,428 accumulative since mid-March with 30,397 recovered. Cases are considered active for 14 days. Not everyone that tests positive shows symptoms.

 There are now 329 patients hospitalized in the seven hospitals within the county with COVID occupying 38 percent of the beds. Overall 88 percent of or 860 of the overall hospital beds that exist are occupied.

In ICU beds, 74 of the 124 patients have COVID. That is 60 percent of the ICU load.

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To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com