California rescinds hospital surge order

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KION) The California Department of Public Health reports that conditions appear to improving at hospitals around the state, so it has decided to rescind its Hospital Surge Public Health Order.

The order was put in place early last month to help hospitals continue to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients and others facing life-threatening conditions as cases and hospitalizations surged.

The CDPH said case rates and hospitalizations are now beginning to decrease. According to state data, there are currently 12,863 COVID-19 patients hospitalized around the state, down from a high of nearly 22,000 hospitalizations reported in early January.

"Current data reflecting declining cases, hospitalizations, test positivity and transmission rates indicate that the acute phase of the unprecedented surge experienced at the end of 2020 has abated sufficiently for hospitals to resume elective surgeries and other conventional standards of care. As community transmission has decreased, so has the burden on the hospital system, including lower hospital admissions, lower levels of patients boarded in the emergency department, and shorter ambulance patient offload times. Consequently, while the status of COVID-19 in California remains serious, the emergent Hospital Surge Order can now be rescinded," said Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón in the order revoking the surge order.

The Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System announced Friday that it closed two of its four COVID-19 units because of a decrease in the number of cases and hospitalizations.