Santa Clara County Reports 1,221 New Coronavirus Cases, 3 Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 1,221 additional coronavirus cases Monday.

The latest report, which covers a two-day period going back to Saturday, brings the countywide case count to 49,216.

The county reported three additional coronavirus-related fatalities Monday, bringing its COVID-19 death toll to 529.

There were 491 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County as of Monday, of which 105 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere around the Bay Area and beyond, San Francisco Department of Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said the city's situation remains dire as hospital beds continue to dwindle amid an unprecedented COVID-19 surge, but he remained optimistic as the city has already received the vaccine Monday morning.

Within the last week, city health officials have reported an average of 200 new cases per day, Colfax said during a virtual briefing.

In the Bay Area, the number of intensive care unit hospital beds fell from 26 percent to 17 percent within the last week.

Other regions, like the San Joaquin Valley, have already run out of beds, according to Colfax.

"Cases are rapidly rising and hospital beds are shrinking within the state, the region, and San Francisco," he said.

"If the hospital census keeps rising at the current rate, San Francisco will run out of intensive care unit beds within the next three to four weeks, as the state and region can also no longer care for sick people due to overall shortage of intensive care unit beds. If things worsen, we will run out of beds sooner," he said.

According to Colfax, the city received 2,000 vessels of the Pfizer vaccine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Monday morning.

He added, however, the vaccine likely won't address the current surge.

Colfax has said the vaccine's first doses will be reserved for frontline workers.

Colfax is urging residents to refrain from holiday travel and to continue to prevention efforts like regular hand-washing, using face coverings and practicing social distancing.

So far, the city has reported 18,645 total cases and 167 deaths.

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There have been 1,599,706 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 21,086 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Monday afternoon according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 16,425,955 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 300,456 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Monday afternoon.

There have been 70,690,902 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,619,389 deaths reported globally as of Monday afternoon.

— Bay City News contributed to this report