This Week on the Central Coast
Why the ICU numbers can be deceiving, Seaside High helps students-in-need, and the sad closure of Stone Creek Kitchen.
Monterey County hospitals warn that the reported ICU bed numbers do not reflect reality.
“Chief Medical Officer at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System Doctor Allen Radner said the capacity that is being reported is not reflective of what healthcare workers are experiencing.” He explained that they could add a ventilator to any bed in the hospital and call it an ICU bed. However, patients in this situation are not receiving the level of care they deserve. Dr. Radner believes a better method to judge the capacity of hospitals should be a patient-to-healthcare worker ratio.
At MEE Memorial Hospital, Chief Medical Officer Robert Valladares says they have struggled to find enough staff to help more patients. Rising prices for travel nurses has priced them out of the market and they have been unable to obtain federal financial support. To help the county, MEE Memorial has been taking lower-risk COVID patients who only need oxygen or basic medications. This allows hospitals with more advanced capabilities to handle more higher-risk patients.
Seaside High opened a resource center to help students in need.
The resource center offers students-in-need a place to do laundry, work on homework, and provides pantry staples and snacks. Everything in the resource centers was donated and the school plans to keep the resource center open even after the pandemic. The idea originiated with Monterey High School, which reported that nearly ten percent of their students are homeless. The school is trying to get the word out around the county so they can help as many students as possible. Please share the article around if you can! “Those interested in donating to the center can contact the school at 831-392-3530, ext. 2078.”
Stone Creek Kitchen announces its closure after ten years of amazing food.
Stone Creek Kitchen in Del Rey Oaks has announced it will be permanently closing in February of next year. Owners Linda Hanger and Kristina Scrivani explained that their lease is up at that time and it just seemed fitting to close their business during a pandemic after opening during a recession ten years ago. They will be going out with a glorious menu for the holidays, including prime rib, beef tenderloin, mushroom ravioli, and something they call a “Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bombshell”. If you have never tried a gourmet sandwich with local produce, or a heaping serving of paella, or a giant chocolate chip cookie from Stone Creek Kitchen, you definitely should before they are gone.
For more information on Monterey County’s COVID-19 numbers, check out this Reddit user’s graphs on Imgur. They update every week and cover a variety of statistics, including case counts by city. Here is the original Reddit post, which gives greater detail of their sources, including the state of California and CHOMP.
I’d also like to thank everyone who helped me get the lockdown-order article right. I had a couple mistakes that you guys pointed out to me. They are corrected on the website, but if you only read the email, you may have missed the corrections. The lockdown orders began at 10 PM on Sunday (I had made a typo and stated they were at 10 AM). Also, the lockdown orders will end on January 11th at the earliest, not January 3rd. Thank you again! Here is the article in case you missed it.