The Santa Clara County Public Health Department held a press conference Sunday to announce that the area is dealing with the growing threat of a new coronavirus variant that appears to be the source of several outbreaks in the county.

Kaiser Permanente in San Jose has been dealing with the aftermath of a deadly outbreak in its Emergency Department that started Christmas morning and now we are learning it also paid a hefty price for similar allegations months before.

Like many other areas of the county, Santa Clara County announced today that it is falling behind in coronavirus vaccine distribution and has given out less than half of its inventory.

Though the situation in hospitals remains worse in Southern California, Santa Clara County has become the first county in the Bay Area to experience serious delays as ambulances arrive at emergency rooms — due to the ERs and the hospitals already being overwhelmed with patients. As cases and hospitalizations potentially surge again following the holidays, other counties are on alert that this emergency-response failure may spread.

One San Jose Kaiser Permanente employee is dead and 44 have tested positive for COVID in a post-Christmas outbreak possibly tied to an inflatable Christmas tree costume.

Officials with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department said Wednesday that just 12% of the hospital beds in the county were available and that there were only 44 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds countywide that were not being used.