Over the past two months, Kern County has seen a drastic decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations, state data shows.
As of March 7, there were 112 COVID-19 positive patients in Kern’s hospitals, a decrease of 341 from Jan. 11 when there were 453 COVID-19 patients in Kern’s hospitals — the highest number of patients flooding local hospitals during the pandemic, according to the California Department of Public Health.
State data also shows a decrease in occupied Intensive Care Unit beds in local hospitals. As of Sunday, there were 33 people in Kern’s ICU, the lowest it’s been since late November. Kern saw a peak in ICU bed occupancy in two months ago on Jan. 11 when there were 110 ICU beds being occupied, leaving just 11 ICU beds available. There was one day in January where there were just six ICU beds available.
Despite ICU capacity increasing, there are some hospitals which are still experiencing a shortage in ICU bed space. Adventist Health Delano and Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield had 0 ICU beds available, according to The New York Times COVID-19 Case and Risk Tracker.
Kern’s trend of experiencing a decrease now and a speak in January aligns with the rest of the state. In January, there were more than 21,000 Californians in hospitals and more than 4,800 Californians in ICU beds, according to the California Department of Public Health.
However, as of Sunday, California residents in the hospitals dropped to 3,766 and California patients in ICU beds dropped to 1,065, leaving 2,159 ICU beds available throughout the state.