Amid California’s coronavirus hospitalization surge, ‘don’t share your air,’ plead health officials

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California doctor calls lockdowns ‘failure of imagination,’ as state becomes epicenter of outbreak

Stanford University professor of medicine Dr. Jay Bhattacharya explains on ‘Fox and Friends Weekend.’

With many hospitals in California at or on the brink of capacity and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently warning that COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state could reach 100,000 by January, "don’t share your air with others," pleaded various doctors and health officials in the state on Tuesday. 

In a joint press conference, officials with some of the state’s larger hospital systems, including Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Dignity Health, as well as officials with California Health and Human Services Agency, and others, pleaded with Californians to continue to take precautions against COVID-19. 

California is averaging almost 44,000 newly confirmed cases a day and has recorded 525,000 in the last two weeks. It's estimated 12% of those who test positive end up in the hospital. (iStock)

"As hospital bed count continues to dwindle, we will not be able to keep up if [coronavirus cases, hopsitalizations] continue to increase," said Greg Adams, the chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, during his opening remarks. 

"We’re at or near capacity everywhere as we are approaching holiday season," he continued, noting that at Kaiser Permanente, there is an expected 1,400 hospitalized patients by the end of the week alone. 

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Adams warned that with COVID-19 patients overwhelming the hospital, it will become much harder to treat non-COVID-19-related emergencies, such as those who suffer a stroke or are in a car accident. 

"We want to make sure we have the capacity to serve everyone in need," he said. 

Meanwhile, the president of System Enterprises at Sutter Health, Dr. Rishi Sikka, reminded Californians that their "small sacrifice" of staying apart from friends and loved ones this holiday season will make for a "different 2021." 

"We are asking you to stay [at] home. We know you are frustrated [about] being apart from others. But all the small sacrifices are so worth it, [we will be] in a different place in one year," he said. 

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For those who do choose to celebrate with others, Sikka, who advised against nonessential travel, urged gatherings to be outside and highly recommended face masks be used during that time. 

"As we’ve heard, California is in a crisis mode -- we are breaking records that we do not want to break," such as the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the state, and the number of patients requiring ventilators or intensive care, said Dr. Thomas McGinn, the executive vice president of the Physician Enterprise at Dignity Health, during the conference. 

McGinn said medical workers have a "simple prescription" for Californians: "Do not share the air." 

"It’s been a long nine months," he added. "Now is the time to be disciplined, now is the time to stick with it." 

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California has recorded a half-million coronavirus cases in the last two weeks and in a month could be facing a once-unthinkable caseload of nearly 100,000 hospitalizations, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state's top health official said Monday.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said it's feared entire areas of the state may run out of room even in their makeshift "surge" capacity units "by the end of the month and early in January." 

In response, the state is updating its planning guide for how hospitals would ration care if everyone can't get the treatment they need, he said.

"Our goal is to make sure those plans are in place but work hard to make sure no one has to put them into place anywhere in California," Ghaly said.

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California is enduring by far its worst spike in cases and hospitalizations. All of Southern California and the 12-county San Joaquin Valley to the north have been out of regular ICU capacity for days. Those two regions are the ones Newsom are likely to have stay-at-home orders extended, meaning many businesses must remain closed, restaurants can only serve takeout and virtually all retail is limited to 20% capacity.

California is averaging almost 44,000 newly confirmed cases a day and has recorded 525,000 in the last two weeks. It's estimated 12% of those who test positive end up in the hospital. 

That means 63,000 hospitalizations from the last 14 days of cases. The current figure is 17,190.

The explosion of cases in the last six weeks has California’s death toll climbing. Another 83 fatalities reported Sunday raised the total to 22,676, though Newsom cautioned the daily figure was likely too low because of a normal weekend reporting lag.

The state has averaged 233 deaths each day for the last 14 days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.