San Joaquin County’s seven hospitals as of Monday have converted 45 beds for ICU patients in addition to the 99 beds they are collectively licensed by the state.

With similar stories throughout the region it is likely Gov. Gavin Newsom will extend the strict stay-at-home orders for the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California that were set to expire Monday.

That means current COVID-19 restrictions will likely be in place through at least Martin Luther King Jr. Day that falls on Monday, Jan. 18.

The state will not lift the stay-at-home order and return a region to the four-tier colored reopening format that starts with purple until ICU capacity reaches 15 percent or better and stays there for several days.

The projection for Southern California and San Joaquin Valley for ICU beds is at 0% based on state figures. Both regions have more ICU beds in use due to converting hospital space that meets specific requirements to allow it to be repurposed for such use.

Northern California's ICU capacity projections are at 28.3%, while the Greater Sacramento region stands at 17.8% and the Bay Area is at 11.1%.

There is only one hospital in San Joaquin County that had better than 15 percent ICU capacity remaining on Monday. That was Kaiser Hospital Manteca at 17 percent. Kaiser had five ICU beds in use with two filled by COVID patients.

Doctors Hospital is at 0 percent remaining capacity with all eight beds in use including five with COVID patients.

The hardest hit is Dameron Hospital and San Joaquin General. They are respectively operating at 158 percent and 156 percent of capacity.

Overall the county’s combined ICU capacity is at 145 percent capacity. That reflects 144 ICU patients of which 83 are COVID patients.

Overall hospital capacity is at 84 percent with 827 beds in use. Of those, 43 percent or 355 are filled with CVID patients. Of the 51 patients at Doctors Hospital, 27 have COVID. 

San Joaquin County hit a record 1,266 new cases on Dec. 22. That compares to the peak of 535 new cases on Aug. 8 at the pinnacle of the summer surge.

The last available dates reflect 800 new cases on Dec. 25 and 644 new cases on Dec. 26.

There are currently 6,765 active cases of COVID among the county’s 767,000 residents. Not all that test positive for COVID get ill or show any symptoms. Fourteen days must pass from the date of a positive test until someone is considered to have recovered. The 6,755 cases reflect a positivity rate of 15 percent among those who took the test on the same day.

There have been 43,930 cases since the pandemic started in mid-March. Of those, 36,540 have recovered.

The countywide death toll stands at 625.

Manteca, as of Thursday, has had 3,962 people test positive for COVID-19 since March. That reflects an infection rate of 46.7 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 19,246 and 60.4 respectively. Next is Lodi at 3,908 and 57.3, Lathrop at 1,317 and 51.0, Escalon at 381 and 50.9, Manteca at 3,962 and 46.7, unincorporated parts of the county at 7,608 and 45.1, Ripon at 710 and 44.5, and Tracy at 4,243 and 44.2.

Statewide, officials on Monday reported that California has had 2.19 million confirmed cases and 24,445 deaths. 

In Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous, county estimates show that about 1 in 95 people are contagious with the virus. Officials estimate one person dies every 10 minutes from COVID-19 in the county.

Health inspectors and authorities in Los Angeles County stepped up enforcement at restaurants and shopping malls over the post-Christmas weekend in an attempt to curb the surge.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com