California has a much higher testing rate than the national average. Like our favorite President said, more tests mean more cases. Don’t be fooled by Newsom and Company.
we have a higher testing rate because there is more demand for tests. People who line up 200 cars deep aren’t in line because they’re feeling fine. I’ve left the ranch three times in 10 months; twice to the grocery and once out of area to check on my other house. I’m one of the 7 million still untested but I haven’t felt the need to go to a drive-in testing site because I’m a) not sick and b) retired and don’t need a test for an employer.
According to a report by Kaiser Permanente, “the U.S. had 85,247 coronary, trauma, surgical, burn, and general ICU beds in community and non-Federal hospitals in 2018. That equates to 2.7 ICU beds per 10,000 of the population.”
California has 2.1 ICU beds per 10,000, or just under 8,300 ICU beds. About half (4,100) are dedicated to covid, the remaining half are for ‘everyday’ ICU patients. We need med staff for both groupings.
According to the Sacramento Bee, “As of Sunday, more than 19,200 patients were hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus in California, including 4,123 treated in intensive care units. Both totals are now officially more than double the peak observed during the summer surge, when about 7,200 were hospitalized with 2,050 in intensive care.”
So, as you can see, Calif is maxed out on ICU capacity. At this point the only stat that counts is, “How many ICU teams of 6 will remain available versus how many occupied ICU beds?”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/coronavirus-updates-california-now-the-covid-epicenter-of-the-us-icu-space-at-0-25/ar-BB1cin7h?ocid=uxbndlbing
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/05/18/icu-bed-capacity-in-all-50-us-states-compared-infographic/?sh=27f9a05324dc