Hospital surge order issued for San Joaquin Valley Region, including San Benito County

SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- California Department of Public Health has issued a hospital surge order to help counties in the San Joaquin Valley Region dealing with a sharp decrease in ICU capacity as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The order includes hospitals in multiple counties, including San Benito, Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Tuolumne.

It allows these counties to transfer acute care patients to other hospitals within the county, region and even the entire state depending on ICU capacity at hospitals within the respective counties and region.

The order is triggered when a region has less than 10% of staffed adult ICU beds available for a period of three consecutive days.

CDPH says the San Joaquin Valley Region must now adhere to the above guidance for at least the next 7 days.

CDPH adds that they will re-evaluate the ICU situation in the region on September 9.

According to the hospitalizations dashboard tracked by CDPH, San Benito County had one ICU bed available as of September 2nd.