Reported by Marcy Axness, TME

Last week Kern County’s new covid-19 case statistics popped out of compliance with state guidelines for reopening. A new modeling tool from the state of California sent an alert this week that Kern County’s normal Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capacity (78 beds) will all be filled less than six weeks from now—on July 28—if covid-19 infections keep increasing as they are now.

Across the nation, “opening the economy” is driving up the number of new covid cases. Arizona’s new case reports, for instance, doubled in two weeks.

“Although we want to think that covid-19 is something that…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Russell Judd, CEO, Kern Medical: ‘This graph does not have to become our reality.’

Graph: Prediction Model for Kern County Covid-19 ICU Patients

Far right: Three weeks ago restaurants began opening to dine-in customers, such as on the the outdoor patio at The Hideaway in Pine Mountain Club May 24.

Graph: But a new June 15 model predicts Kern County will exceed its ICU capacity in less than six weeks, by July 28.

Above: Kern Medical’s CEO Russell Judd says this modeling tool is a ‘mechanism for planning,’ to invite people to change: ‘If people follow the recommendations, this graph does not have to become our reality.’

Masks help us all stay safe.

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This is part of the June 19, 2020 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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