CDPH Director Dr. Tomas Aragon (Photo: State of California Youtube screenshot)
CDPH Announces Return Of Order Requiring Hospitals To Transfer COVID-19 Patients Once ICUs Are Full
Many worry that return of lockdown-era orders could bring in more to state in coming weeks
By Evan Symon, August 17, 2021 6:24 pm
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a new public health order on Monday that would require all hospitals in California to accept transfer patients from facilities with limited ICU capacity.
According to the order, the specific threshold for hospitals to begin letting the state know that transfers are imminent would be when less than 20% of staffed ICU beds are available for three or more days, when patients are overflowing into other areas of the hospital, and when outdoor tents are being used for three or more days. Once regions reach a threshold of 10% or under ICU beds for three days or more or individual hospitals reach 0% available ICU beds, then, for seven days, patients can transfer out to other hospitals in the region. If none are available in the region, then all general acute care hospitals must accept them as clinically appropriate.
The transfer order, a rollback to transfer rules earlier this year during the last major wave of COVID-19 cases, was created specifically to deal with the new Delta variant wave in the state that is infecting roughly 10,000 Californians a day. A rising number of ICU cases in particular led to CDPH Director Tomas Aragon to enact the new order.
“The Delta variant, which is currently the most common variant in California, is highly transmissible and may cause more severe illness,” said Dr. Aragon in a press release on Monday. “In fact, recent data suggests that viral load is roughly 1,000 times higher in people infected with the Delta variant than those infected with the original coronavirus strain, according to a recent study. California is currently experiencing the fastest increase in COVID-19 cases during the entire pandemic with 23.8 new cases per 100,000 people per day, with case rates increasing eleven-fold within two months. Hospitalizations have increased over 700% in the past two months and are projected to continue to increase.
“During last winter’s surge in COVID cases, hospital capacity was ensured because of the combined effects of the State’s general public health measures and critical efforts to coordinate hospital response on a local, regional, and statewide level. Now, the widespread adoption of vaccines, the State’s ongoing efforts to increase the rate of vaccination, and common-sense protections such as masking, when combined with renewed efforts at coordination among and promoting flexibility for hospitals, will ensure that all Californians continue to receive the care they need in our hospitals.”
While most health experts agree to the new transfers to help treat as many people as possible, many Californians negatively affected by the lockdowns worry that this could lead back to more returning lockdown orders in the near future.
“Things were normal this summer up until the end of July,” explained John Santos, a Los Angeles restaurant owner who represents the restaurants on his block to the Globe on Tuesday. “Then mask mandates came back, then vaccination mandates started to be put on. Right now we’re fighting against vaccination proof to get into restaurants. They already did in [San Francisco]. Now they are shuffling around patients again. To us, it’s a hint that more mandates are coming, especially after the election when it won’t have any more political consequences.”
The new transfer order is set to begin on Wednesday August 18th.
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I kind of feel proud that I was protesting in person in front of Aragon’s house in Glen Park in San Francisco in March 2020 before his Crony Czar Newsom elevated him… I was “ahead of the curve.” So here’s the deal with Aragon: he’s a total shill. He bought his house under-market from a McKesson AIDS drug marketer, and in April 2020, San Francisco County signed a $300,000,000 specialty AIDS drug pharmacy agreement with McKesson – for $100,000,000 over the value of the drugs if SF hadn’t engaged in Sophisticated Pay-To-Play. Aragon’s kickback: his sweetheart property deal. That’s how the SF Democratic machine does it.
And can we finally expose the ICU capacity fraud? I mean what they’ve been doing is creating artificial scarcity in the ICU’s by creating “corona” set-asides, so it’s when they reach the arbitrary set-aside, not the actual ICU capacity that becomes the “lockdown” trigger.
This is outrageous fearmongering and it needs to stop. NOW. Who is this guy, anyway? As a physician he should know that so-called variants of this virus — although more contagious — are weaker and less capable of causing serious disease and death. That is because when a virus mutates it weakens, it doesn’t get stronger. Isn’t that Virology 101? This isn’t a science fiction movie, after all, although after 18 months of this nonsense and misinformation it certainly resembles one.
Furthermore, hospitals are not running out of ICU beds, they are running out of STAFF to care for ALL sick people who find themselves hospitalized. Why is that, you may ask? Well, it’s because health workers, nurses and other staff —- when faced with vaccine mandates —- are quitting in great numbers rather than submit to this ridiculous, nonsensical policy.
Very good points added @ Thomas and @ShowandTell.
Hospitals stay in the black when ICU bed capacity is 80 to 90 percent.
Let’s not forget that during the height of the original strain, make shift care units went unused including the naval hospital ship in the San Pedro Port.
This seems to be another set up to condition the masses to accept more mandates. If they are truly concerned with increased hospitalizations then why is there not a plan for early treatment protocols. Why are there not PSA’s advocating for healthy lifestyles and the importance of Vitamin D levels in your system to fight off all viruses.
As ShowandTell has pointed out viruses mutate and weaken, at least that is what is typical and historical.
Great points from you, Cali Girl! Thank you for posting them.
The Perma-Demic rolls on.
“The only thing we have to fear is lack of fear itself.”
Wow Gregory Brittain, that’s a good one, I’ll remember it.