Because any COVID-19 patients from the Big Bear Valley would likely be treated by other, larger hospitals in San Bernardino County, City officials continue to closely monitor hospitalization and ventilator data in the entire County. Thankfully, there has been sufficient capacity in San Bernardino County hospitals throughout the COVID-19 event. However, hospitalizations have increased in the County in recent weeks and are now at the highest levels since the COVID-19 event began.
According to the latest County data, there are currently 488 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients hospitalized in San Bernardino County. Although hospitalizations have increased in the County in recent weeks, it is important to understand the context of this increase. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in our County previously peaked at 451 patients on April 10, and then dropped to 196 patients by May 15. On June 16, there were a total of 293 patients hospitalized in our County. It is important to note that there are approximately 6,000 hospital beds in San Bernardino County, and the County has specifically identified 1,106 “surge capacity” beds (the number of additional beds a hospital could provide if all available space was needed) in response to the COVID-19 event.
According to the latest County data, there are a total of 148 COVID-19 patients in intensive care. This is the highest reported number of ICU patients with suspected or confirmed cases during the COVID-19 event, eclipsing the April 10 total of 124 patients. It is important to note, however, that there are still a total of 140 intensive care beds available in San Bernardino County. To put this in perspective, there were a total of 61 intensive care beds available on April 16, a total of 168 intensive care beds available on May 16, and 156 intensive care beds available on June 16.
According to the latest San Bernardino County data, COVID-19 patients are currently utilizing 103 ventilators out of the 804 ventilators in our County. There are a total of 193 ventilators currently being utilized by patients with other ailments, and a total of 508 ventilators remain available. Since April 11, there have never been less than 500 ventilators available in San Bernardino County.
The overall number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in San Bernardino County has increased by approximately 50% since June 16, and City officials are concerned about this increase. The City considers this data to be among the most important data when making decisions for our community, and will continue to monitor and adjust our COVID-19 strategy if / as needed.