Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Santa Clara County registered this Tuesday 725 new positive cases of COVID-19, which brings the total number of people affected by the virus to 41,316, in addition to the death of one person from the disease, bringing the total number of deaths to 512.
During this second day of the week, 75 more citizens were hospitalized and 383 are now in county hospitals due to the pandemic.
With the increase in the number of cases, Santa Clara remains at purple risk level, the most restrictive of all. It has been three days since the stay-at-home mandate began, due to overcrowding in intensive care units.
"We are clearly seeing increased levels of transmission in our community, and we know from historical data that about 10 percent of people diagnosed with COVID-19 will need hospitalization," Dr. Ahmad Kamal, director of COVID-19 Health Care Preparedness for the county, said Sunday.
According to county testing officer Marty Fenstersheib, about 17,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine could arrive by Dec. 15, and the first in line to receive them will be health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, but doses will be scarce.
"We certainly won't get enough vaccine for these two large groups," said Fenstersheib, who added that this will be the first delivery of doses and more are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as hospitals prepare to administer them.
In the next few days, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to approve Pfizer's vaccine and Moderna's vaccine.
Recently, county health officials presented their vaccine plan for stockpiling and distribution to California, the plan details the data and disclosure system that will be used to ensure that people receive double doses of the vaccine.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to advance in the country without respite, the state of California has become the state with the most infections in the U.S. by registering 1,414,913 positive cases, and the third with the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 20,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
It should be noted that the vaccines will not be enough to ensure that contagions continue, or at least not for the moment, so health officials have called to stay alert, wear masks, abide by the social distancing and constantly wash their hands.
