Commentary: San Diego hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients. We are pleading for your help.

COVID-19 is the largest pandemic in more than 100 years. It has been devastating to business and our economy. It has been a tragedy to the families of the more than 330,000 Americans who have died, and it has created so much fear that some people are afraid to leave their homes. And sadly, in this age of division, it has added to the split in our society between those desperate to stay well and follow the guidelines and those who believe that the prevention methods are not worth the cure.

I’m a health care administrator not here to try to answer those global questions. As there are with most things, there are legitimate arguments for both sides. But those of us in health care — especially hospitals — see one thing very clearly every day: This fight is about human life, the preservation of life and the preservation of the dignity of patients fighting for every breath — sometimes all too often, their last breath.

We have a plea this week before another holiday and the beginning of a new year.

Back in July, San Diego County hospitals experienced our initial surge peak due to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit our community. At that time, state and county governments as well as hospitals asked for the community’s support to shelter-in-place at home, wear masks, physically distance and wash their hands for at least 20 seconds as frequently as necessary.

Our community responded, our positive cases were reduced, hospitalized COVID-19 patients decreased and deaths from COVID-19 declined.

However, as we eased up on the restrictions over the summer, some people felt that wearing masks was not necessary — or even an affront to their personal rights. And the cases started to rise again. As we neared Halloween and Thanksgiving, those of us in health care held our breath out of fear that this would be the beginning of another surge. Sadly, we were correct. Countywide COVID-19 hospitalizations were as low as 200 on Oct. 23, but Halloween hit, followed by Thanksgiving. Many ignored no-travel requests and met with family members outside of their bubble. The result was a surge in cases that made our peak surge back in July look just like a fire drill.

Today, we have 1,563 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county. Scripps Health now has more COVID-19 patients in our hospitals than there were in all of San Diego County hospitals combined back in July: 413 and rising. Scripps, Sharp, Palomar, Kaiser and UC San Diego Health all have such patients in excess of 100, and that number is growing daily. We feared Christmas and now we fear New Year’s Day because we could face a surge on a surge on a surge.

Sunday, we had 18 staffed ICU beds available in San Diego County — not even enough to handle a single mass casualty incident. Right now, out of 173 ICU beds at Scripps, we have seven staffed beds available and more than three times that number of patients waiting for beds in our emergency departments. And death rates are on the rise again. This past weekend, one of our community hospitals ran out of room in their morgue. We are nearing the point where we have to make the decision of who gets care and who does not.

If you don’t think COVID-19 has an impact on you, please think again. If you need a trauma bed this New Year’s or in January, COVID-19 will have an impact on you. If you, a loved one or a friend needs a hospital bed for any reason, COVID-19 impacts you.

Please help us help you. Stay at home this New Year’s. Stay in your safety bubble. And for the last time in 2020, please wear a mask (over your nose, too, please), stay more than 6 feet apart even outdoors, do not eat or drink near people outside of your immediate family and wash your hands. If you ignored the warnings over the holidays, do your community a favor and quarantine at home for up to 14 days so you don’t infect others.

If we all work together, lives will be saved. There is a light at the end of the tunnel in 2021 — vaccines are here. Nobody has more pandemic fatigue than hospitals and hospital physicians and staff. We are pleading for your help and support.

Van Gorder is president and chief executive officer of Scripps Health. He lives in San Diego County.