Don't let your guard down against COVID-19, Valley doctors warn residents ahead of 4th of July weekend

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Community Regional Medical Center is typically already full of patients who are ill or being treated for trauma.

CRMC holds 102 ICU beds but now doctors are bracing for a chilling spike in COVID-19 patients.

"Over the last couple of weeks, we went to 40, 50, sustained 60. I would not be surprised if by Monday we were well over a hundred," said Dr. Jeff Thomas with CRMC.

Those patients would be spread out at all of Community's hospitals - CRMC, Clovis Community, and the Heart Hospital.

St. Agnes Hospital has been pushed to capacity as well. It has designated a respiratory unit so it can isolate the increasing number of COVID patients.

"We were seeing in the very beginning, roughly average volumes in terms of our in-house COVID population, between 16 and 20 COVID-positive patients. We're up to double that now," said Dr. Walter Egerton with St. Agnes.

Dr. Thomas explained how contact tracing has been very revealing, even among healthcare workers who test positive.

"Most of the contacts were lapses in mindfulness about self-isolation and social distancing. 'Oh yeah, I wear my mask all the time when I'm taking care of patients but me and three people had lunch in a break room and didn't'."

Any time you're around a group of other people, doctors stress the importance of wearing a mask.