Amid masks debate, COVID-19 cases push California hospitals near ICU capacity

Hospitals in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley region have had fewer than 10 per cent of staffed adult ICU beds for three consecutive days.
A small group protest against COVID-19 mandates as they express their support for the California recall outside Culver City High School. (Photo | AP)
A small group protest against COVID-19 mandates as they express their support for the California recall outside Culver City High School. (Photo | AP)

SACRAMENTO: Hospitals in the heart of California's Central Valley are running out of beds in their intensive care units, state officials announced Friday, as a more contagious version of the coronavirus continues to spread primarily among the unvaccinated population.

Hospitals in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley region have had fewer than 10 per cent of staffed adult ICU beds for three consecutive days.

State officials labelled it a "surge," triggering special rules announced last month that require nearby hospitals to accept transfer patients.

In Fresno County and neighbouring counties, the number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients in hospitals is more than double what it was four weeks ago, the Fresno Bee reported.

In San Joaquin County, new virus cases and the number of people admitted to hospitals has surpassed the peak numbers of cases and patients during last summer's surge, according to the county health officer.

But a spokeswoman for the county's Office of Emergency Services said the county had enough hospital beds to avoid transferring patients out of the county as of Friday.

If the problem gets worse and ICU capacity falls to zero, the state says hospitals across California must also accept transfer patients.

Statewide, new coronavirus cases have declined following a surge attributed to the delta variant, a more contagious and dangerous version of the virus.

On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced more than 80 per cent of Californians 12 and older have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, putting California among the highest vaccine rates in the country.

But coronavirus-related hospitalisations in the state have continued to climb.

As of Thursday, 8,630 people were hospitalised because of the coronavirus across the state, more than five times higher the number of people hospitalised on July 1.

"This is still primarily, overwhelmingly, a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Newsom said.

The battle over mask requirements to guard against coronavirus in Florida schools headed for a new legal phase Friday following an appeal by Republican Gov.

Ron DeSantis of a judge's ruling that a blanket ban on mask mandates exceeds the state government's authority.

The case heads next to the 15 judges on the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee and could ultimately wind up in the state Supreme Court.

The issue is whether the freshly minted Parents Bill of Rights law means parents have sole authority to decide if their child wears a mask or permits a school board to impose a broad mask requirement.

Because that will likely take time, lawyers for parents challenging the ban on mask requirements want Leon County Circuit Judge John C.

Cooper to immediately lift an automatic stay that effectively allows the ban to continue to be enforced during the appeal.

Plaintiff attorney Charles Gallagher said in a court filing that the rise of the highly contagious delta variant of the COVID-19 virus makes it all the more important that school districts be permitted to decide student mask mandates for themselves.

"If the automatic stay remains in place, defendants would be permitted during the duration of the appeal to enforce the executive order and freely expose students and school staff to increased risk of delta variant infection, which is a continuing constitutional violation," Gallagher wrote.

"Compelling circumstances are clearly present here."

Cooper set a hearing for Wednesday morning on the parents' request that the stay be lifted.

Jacob Oliva, public schools chancellor at the state Department of Education, said in a notice Thursday to local superintendents that "enforcement must cease if the stay is lifted."

Under the DeSantis executive order, state education officials have been seeking to penalize defiant school boards by withholding salaries of board members.

As of Friday, 13 districts representing more than half of Florida's 2.8 million public school students had imposed mask mandates despite the governor's order that a parental opt-out must be included.

Most have only an opt-out for medical reasons.

The rebel districts showed no signs of backing down, with some hiring lawyers to defend their decisions that often came after raucous public meetings pitting pro- and anti-mask parents against each other.

Alachua County school Superintendent Carlee Simon, like others, insisted a mask mandate is permitted under the Parents Bill of Rights.

The judge's ruling against the DeSantis order, she said in a statement, "confirms what we've said all along, which is that our mask mandate does not violate Florida law."

DeSantis, who is gearing up for a 2022 re-election campaign and a possible 2024 presidential run, has dismissed the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people generally wear masks to prevent coronavirus spread in certain situations.

In particular, he contends that masks are less essential for young people and carry some risks of their own for children.

At a news conference Friday in Pensacola, DeSantis said he opposes broad government or business mandates on masks or anything else related to the coronavirus pandemic.

He did not directly address the school mask debate.

"We've got to protect people's ability to live their lives," DeSantis said.

"My philosophy is, as a governor, my job is to protect your individual freedom."

The governor's appeal came Thursday night after Cooper issued a written version of his order delivered orally last week.

The judge found that the Parents Bill of Rights law exempts government actions that are needed to protect public health and are reasonable and limited in scope — such as masking students to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

In fact, Cooper wrote that the DeSantis order on school masks itself violates the Parents Bill of Rights by illegally constraining the actions of school boards.

"This statute does not support a statewide order or action interfering with the constitutionally provided authority of local school districts to provide for the safety and health of the children based on the unique facts on the ground in a particular county," Cooper wrote.

In addition, the judge said school boards must be afforded a chance to contest any penalties levied against them for adopting a student mask mandate.

The appeals court did not immediately indicate when it would take up the governor's appeal, which first must be filed in a full written document.

The action taken Thursday night was a notice to the court that a detailed appeal of Cooper's order is coming.

Also Friday, school officials in Broward, Alachua and Orange counties filed a petition to schedule a hearing before an administrative law judge.

According to the filing, the local school officials want the judge to invalidate a state health department emergency rule based on the governor's executive order.

Meanwhile, the father of an Arizona elementary school student was arrested after he and two other men showed up to the campus with zip ties, threatening to make a "citizen's arrest" on the school principal over a COVID-19 quarantine, school officials said Friday.

Diane Vargo, principal of Mesquite Elementary School in Tucson, said the parent came to her office Thursday with his son in tow.

The father was upset the child would have to isolate and miss a school field trip because of possible exposure to someone with COVID-19.

She said two other men also "barged in."

One was carrying "military, large, black zip ties and standing in my doorway."

Vargo said she tried to de-escalate the situation while explaining the school had to follow county health protocols.

"I felt violated that they were in my office claiming I was breaking the law and they were going to arrest me," a visibly shaken Vargo said in a video statement released by the Vail Unified School District.

"Two of the men weren't parents at our school, so I felt threatened."

In a video posted on social media, Vargo can be heard calmly asking them to leave.

One of them replies they aren't leaving because they're not going to let her control the situation.

The principal called Tucson police.

School officials said the man arrested was the father.

Vargo said they are pursuing charges against the other two men.

The arrest is the latest in a number of confrontations in schools around the country over virus-related rules.

School district officials commended Vargo's handling of the situation.

"The principal through training and her own personality did an excellent job of making sure that tensions didn't escalate," District Superintendent John Carruth told The Associated Press.

Considering the threats, Carruth said the decision to call police was appropriate.

Most people, while frustrated by the continuing impacts of the pandemic, are still supportive of each other and the school system, he said.

"The tactics are escalating but I wouldn't say there is a broader need to raise concern," he said.

"The solution and the lesson and the silver lining in this (incident) is it calls attention to the need for all of us to seek to listen with the intent to understand."

Dr. Francisco Garcia, Pima County's chief medical officer, declined to comment on the incident.

"We are still in the process of contemplating what our next steps are in terms of our individual response to that family in terms of their adherence to staying at home," Garcia said.

This wasn't the first virus-inspired confrontation involving the Tucson area school district, which is 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of Phoenix.

In April, the district board ended a study session and then canceled a regular meeting after dozens of parents protested the district's refusal to lift its mask mandate.

Sheriff's deputies were summoned to help keep order after parents, many not wearing masks, pushed their way into the boardroom.

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