As Central Coast hospitals see an increase of coronavirus cases, healthcare workers and their representatives are expressing concerns about strained hospital conditions.
“The numbers have just exploded as everyone knows in the past 10 days ...in the past two weeks… there is no getting around that," SEIU United Health Care Workers West President Dave Regan said.
He says the recent COVID-19 surge is straining hospital workers and he believes gathering has strongly contributed to the increase.
"If we do what we did on Thanksgiving we are just going to have numbers that are just going to max out the system and our workforce is extraordinarily concerned about that," Regan said.
French Hospital ICU Director Mark Soll says all 11 of his hospital's ICU beds are full, 6 with COVID-19 patients.
With coronavirus cases rising, he says they have been scrambling to find beds for patients.
"A lot of people have been railing against (Gov. Newsom's stay-at-home order) as being unnecessary on the Central Coast because we're in such good shape well, they don't know what they're talking about. We're not in good shape," Soll said.
Dave Regan believes that if cases continue to rise with the limited capacity already available in hospitals, the effects could be widespread.
"If these numbers continue to rise, we are starting to eat into the capacity of the rest of the hospital's operation," he said.
Soll says they are making plans for an auxiliary ICU for COVID and non-COVID patients at French Hospital.