Like the rest of the region, Pasadena’s coronavirus situation is dire. Every metric is alarming, whether it’s hospitalizations, deaths or new case counts.
Huntington Hospital has 179 patients in its dedicated coronavirus units; that’s 100 more patients than it had during the peak in April, the previous high water mark before this latest surge began.
Earlier this week, the hospital warned that doctors may be forced to ration care to patients.
Meanwhile, the city has counted between one and three deaths almost every day for two weeks now. Many of those were reported yesterday, as the city worked through a backlog of recent death reports, adding 10 to its tally in one day — double the previous record.
New cases continue to mount, though the city is reporting slightly less than it was a week ago at this time — an average of 109 new cases a day compared to 117 each day last week, an analysis of city data shows.
To put it in perspective, Pasadena was averaging about 47 new cases a day during the last week of November. It was seeing about 10 new cases a day in the first week of November.
“We’re very concerned about people being able to get high-quality care in hospitals,” said Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, Pasadena’s public health director who spoke to this newsgroup on Friday, Jan. 1. “The burden that COVID has placed on our local hospitals, our regional hospitals and the system as a whole, is really putting us all at risk.”
Already, the county was seeing a “spike within a spike” from Thanksgiving-related travel, Goh said. Beginning this weekend and running through next week, we will start to see new cases — and then hospitalizations — from Christmas festivities. One week after that, the New Year’s Eve celebration spike will begin, she explained.
“What’s happening in Pasadena is what’s happening across the county and state,” Goh said. “We’re no different.”
The latest cases
Since this newsgroup last reported on the city’s coronavirus situation on Dec. 16, the city has reported 1,809 new cases. That’s 500 more new cases than the last two week period and it’s more than 10 times the number of new cases that were reported in a two week period in early November.
Half of the new cases involved young people under the age of 40; 196 patients were younger than 18 while 711 were between 18- and 40-years-old.
Another 601 patients were between the ages of 41 and 64; 304 more patients were over the age of 65.
More than half of the new cases involved Latino patients, according to city data, following a trend that’s held steady since the summer. Studies have shown this demographic is more likely to get the virus because they tend to live in tight-knit communities and work frontline jobs.
Out of 1,809 new cases reported between Dec. 17 and Dec. 31:
- 292 new cases involved white patients;
- 819 new cases involved Latino patients;
- 92 new cases involved Black or African American patients;
- 101 new cases involved Asian or Pacific Islander patients;
- 42 new cases involved patients of another race.; and
- 463 new cases are still under investigation; the backlog sits at 1,245 cases.
Since the pandemic began, Pasadena has reported 6,879 cases and 167 deaths, including 28 new deaths reported over the past two weeks. More than half of those deaths were reported this week alone.
Out of 28 deaths, 11 were men and 17 were women; of those, 11 were residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Three of the people who lost their lives to the virus were between the ages of 41 and 64. All of the other recently reported fatalities involved patients over the age of 65.
Long-term care facilities
What began as a trickle has now turned into a flood as nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are counting a deluge of new cases, particularly among two facilities that had previously not reported many cases at all.
At the Pasadena Convalescent Hospital, otherwise known as The Californian, cases have exploded over the past two weeks. The facility had never reported more than 10 cases among its staff and residents until recently. Now, it’s counting 18 cases among residents and 28 cases among staff members, according to city data.
It’s a similar story at Pasadena Care Center; it hadn’t reported more than 10 cases at any point in the pandemic. Now, it’s tallying 37 cases among residents and 46 among staff, according to city data.
Other facilities have had their share of trouble, too, as the virus continues to spread among staff members even as residents aren’t reporting new cases. At Pasadena Grove Health Center, 10 more staff members have contracted the virus since Dec. 16, according to city data.
At Brighton Care Center, eight more staff members have been infected over the same period and two of its residents have died. Camellia Gardens saw another six staff members get infected at its facility and had one resident die.
At Foothill Heights Care Center, which hadn’t reported more than 10 cases among its staff since the pandemic began, now tells the city it has 15 infected staff members, city data shows.
Out of the 19 facilities tracked on the city’s dashboard, 12 have reported new cases among staff or residents in the past two weeks. Prior to this recent surge, most of these places hadn’t reported any new cases since the spring.
