ICU capacity is dropping on the Central Coast — but state still should split us from SoCal

San Luis Obispo County’s effort to break away from the Southern California stay-at-home region appears to be on hold, at least for now.

As of Tuesday, the Governor’s Office had not responded to the request from San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties to form a Central Coast region separate from Southern California, which has been harder hit by the coronavirus.

“Splitting off as a region is still the preferred option,” SLO County Administrator Wade Horton said via email. “It continues not to make sense that we are tied to all of Southern California.”

We agree — especially since the stay-at-home order has been extended for the foreseeable future. We urge the Governor’s Office to have the courtesy of providing the county with a response.

But let’s be realistic. Even if the Tri-Counties were to form its own region, it wouldn’t be in much better shape then the rest of the state in terms of available intensive care unit beds.

In fact, Ventura County’s situation couldn’t get much worse; as of Tuesday it had 0.1% of its adult ICU beds available.

San Luis Obispo County still has ICU beds available — 23 of 53 beds were available on Monday, according to state statistics.

But in Santa Barbara County, only 6.7% of beds were available — down from 43% on Dec. 1.

Under the governor’s regional system, additional lockdown restrictions take effect when ICU capacity is under 15%.

Based on the state’s criteria, the Southern California region currently is at 0% ICU capacity; there have been reports of ambulances being turned away and patients being cared for in converted gift shops and hospital lobbies in the Los Angeles area.

Given the dire situation, heightened COVID-19 restrictions — which include shutting down hair salons, limiting restaurants to take-out and delivery and capping occupancy at 20% in retail stores — were extended indefinitely on Tuesday.

And while San Luis Obispo County is in a better position than many of its neighbors, this isn’t just about beds; hospitals also need enough staff to care for patients. That’s also becoming increasingly difficult.

Chiefs of staff of SLO County hospitals issued a joint letter on Dec. 17, warning that the situation is critical.

“Recent messaging from community leaders has gravely underestimated our local crisis,” the letter said. “We want to be clear — the dramatic increase in coronavirus hospitalizations and ICU admissions is straining your local hospitals.”

On top of that, the first U.S. case of a new, more contagious strain of the virus was reported Tuesday in Colorado.

Meanwhile, SLO County’s case count continues to surge; what initially looked like good news over the Christmas weekend — only 68 new cases were reported — may have been due to a lag in verifying data supplied by the state.

We continue to support forming a separate Central Coast stay-at-home region.

Southern California is a huge area, and lockdown rules that make sense in heavily populated areas like Los Angeles or San Diego may not be as necessary in more rural areas like ours.

But let’s not kid ourselves. COVID-19 is a grave public health threat on the Central Coast.

We’ve seen how quickly situations can change. Santa Barbara County had 43% of ICU beds available in early December, and now has under 7%.

We again urge the governor to fine-tune his regional map — it may not make much of a difference now, but in the weeks ahead it could have a substantial impact on the Central Coast if our ICU capacity improves at a faster rate than the rest of the region.

At the same time, we strongly urge SLO County residents to follow the advice local hospital chiefs gave in their open letter to the community:

“Stay home if you can. Wash your hands. Socially distance. Wear masks. Hunker down with us and do your part. This includes the holidays. Together, we can reduce local mortality and improve our community’s health.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 5:30 AM.