Santa Clara County quietly reopens hospital to deal with COVID cases

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Hospital reopens in Morgan Hill to help COVID patients

The DePaul Health Center in Morgan Hill was quietly reopened to create another hospital in Santa Clara County able to treat COVID patients.

In Santa Clara County, officials say COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on the Latinx community and also on the hospitals that serve it.

That's apparent in Gilroy, where Saint Louise Regional Hospital is out of ICU beds. The facility is also short on nurses.

So Santa Clara County has taken action to relieve some of the pressure. The long-shuttered DePaul Health Center in Morgan Hill was quietly reopened just before Christmas.

It's now accepting 36 sub-acute COVID patients.

"It's been really helping to unload those patients that are stable enough to be discharged but not quite to go home," said Gloria Dela Merced of Saint Louise.

Still, the extra beds are not enough, according to officials. Too many people are simply too sick.

"There are days when we have to transfer them outside of our county," said Dela Merced.

With local hospitals straining to handle the volume of patients, Santa Clara County officials held another news conference and issued yet another warning.

"We have already lost over 650 people in our community. These are invaluable, indispensable people to our families, to our communities. We cannot lose another person," said Maribel Martinez, a spokesperson for Santa Clara County.

They say the Latinx community has been especially hard hit, accounting for 52% of COVID-19 cases, but only 25% of the population.

"Essential workers are our sisters and brothers. They're our moms hard at work, our friends, our children's caretakers and it is up to all of us to keep them safe," said Maria Noel Fernandez of Working Partnerships USA.

Volunteers have been going door to door, offering education, and free testing.

But officials are worried that holiday gatherings could lead to a bigger surge in cases.

"Please celebrate differently. Celebrate virtually. Celebrate with just the people in your household," said Martinez.

This is imperative, they say, since the hospitals can't take much more.

"We continue to do all we can to care and treat our patients, but it gets harder all the time," said Dela Merced.

For now, Saint Louise has postponed all elective surgeries and is trying to bring in some traveling nurses to help with staffing.