California Coronavirus Updates: Sacramento Likely To Remain Under Stay-At-Home Orders
Thursday, December 31, 2020 | Sacramento, CA
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Stay-at-home orders for the Sacramento region are likely to be extended, state officials announced Thursday, as intensive care unit capacity continued to stay low.
The region fell under the state s regional stay-at-home order Dec. 10, after intensive care unit capacity dropped below the state s 15% threshold to remain open. Under the orders, businesses such as barbershops and nail salons must close, while retail stores can stay open at 20% capacity and restaurants are limited to takeout-only.
California spent millions on ventilators. Why they re sitting unused during COVID surge
Sacramento Bee 12/31/2020 Jason Pohl, The Sacramento Bee
Dec. 31 In the spring, California set a bold goal: Have 10,000 ventilators ready to farm out to overwhelmed hospitals treating sick patients struggling to breathe.
Officials put their faith in a small Bakersfield medical supply company once raided by the FBI during a Medicare fraud investigation. For a moment, the arrangement looked like it might go bust the way of other high-dollar deals forged during the pandemic s Wild West days.
But Ashli Health Care this fall delivered the final shipments of ventilators 4,138 in total, state records show. The state paid out $77.7 million to the company, among the largest contracts entered during the COVID-19 response and by far the single largest purveyor of ventilators.
Nerissa Black
toggle caption Nerissa Black
Nerissa Black works as a telemetry nurse at the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, Calif. Since early December, she s been tasked with caring for six critically ill patients per shift instead of four. Nerissa Black
California s telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state relaxed California s mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in mid-December, Nerissa Black has had to keep track of six.
And these six patients are really sick: they all need constant electronic heart monitoring and many of them are being treated simultaneously for a stroke and COVID-19, or a heart attack and COVID-19. With more patients than usual needing more complex care, Black says she s worried she ll miss something or make a mistake.
Nerissa Black
Nerissa Black works as a telemetry nurse at the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, Calif. Since early December, she s been tasked with caring for six critically ill patients per shift instead of four.
Dec 30, 2020
April Dembosky
California s telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state relaxed California s mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in mid-December, Nerissa Black has had to keep track of six.
And these six patients are really sick: they all need constant electronic heart monitoring and many of them are being treated simultaneously for a stroke and COVID-19, or a heart attack and COVID-19. With more patients than usual needing more complex care, Black says she s worried she ll miss something or make a mistake.