CHICO, Calif. - Action News Now spoke with public health about how many patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 and how many of those are in ICU beds.
"A review of the latest COVID-19 numbers in Butte County tell us that our statistics are still going in the wrong direction," said Public Health Director Danette York.
Butte County surpassed 900 cases on Thursday. But how many of those cases are serious enough to be in the hospital?
The state's website is reporting 27 coronavirus patients in Butte County hospitals, but the county's data shows only seven hospitalized.
Action News Now asked Butte County Public Health why there is a disconnection between the number of patients hospitalized between the state's data and the county data.
"So the county only reports on Butte County residents," shared York. "But our hospital sees many more patients that live outside of Butte County."
So the state's number of 27 is correct, but 20 are not from Butte County.
"What the state is looking at is increased hospitalization rates, due to COVID patients - totally. They're not concerned about where the patients live it's just whether or not there's an increase in hospitalizations," York said.
According to the state's website, only 13% of ICU beds in Butte County are open.
"What the state data is reporting on is the availability of ICU beds overall, not necessarily how many of those beds being used by COVID patients," York said.
Butte County Public Health told Action News Now there are 53 ICU beds in the Butte County hospitals. The state has 47 of them are occupied, and just 10 of those are COVID-19 patients with only six open beds left.
"I know I sound like a broken record but it bears repeating, we as a community have the ability and the responsibility to turn the curve so our case numbers go down," said York.
Click Here to watch the full Butte County Public Health coronavirus briefing from July 30.