Kern County has seen a drastic increase in hospitalizations over the last four weeks.

Just over four days, from Aug. 28-Sept.2, 66 more COVID-19 patients were placed in local hospitals, while 17 more COVID-19 patients were placed in Kern’s ICU beds from Sept. 2-6. As of Tuesday, there were 323 COVID-19 patients recovering in the hospital and 67 in the ICU.

“A sudden significant increase to this magnitude overwhelms the system” Kern County Public Health Director Brynn Carrigan told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

A state model is predicting Kern have a total of 333 COVID-19 patients in the hospital by Sept. 17.

According to Kern Public Health, 98.23 percent of COVID-19 patients in the hospital are unvaccinated. Likewise, over the last 14 days, 99.17 percent of Kern’s COVID-19 cases are individuals who are unvaccinated.

In order to address the increase in hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases, the state has sent a medical team from the National Guard to help staffing concerns in Kern’s hospitals. This team will be in Kern for the next four to six weeks, according to Carrigan.

As of Monday, 47.6 percent of Kern’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated, while 57 percent has at least one dose of the vaccine.