next at 5:00, ambulances in limbo and lives in the balance. trouble offloading patients. plus looking for ways to speed up the vaccine roll out? the governor is thinking about engaging the national guard. >> tragedy at the beach. the search for two children swept out to sea and their father who drowned looking for them. as the first responder talks about his grief over what happened. heavy winds and are the problem. >> we begin in santa clara county and the crisis over

covid-19. the hospital is stretched so thin that at times ambulances are having to wait hours for an open bed to get their parents the care they need. >> thank you for joining us. abc7news anchor liz croit starts us off with what this means. >> reporter: as icu capacity cons to dwindle, ambulance offload times are on the rise. in santa clara county ambulances have had to wait for over seven hours with a patient before a bed opened up inside. >> what's happening now is because of the volume, because of the impact on hospitals, we're seeing these wait times, we're seeing these backups in emergency rooms, and that westerns us a lot. >> reporter: the san jose department stepped in to support. they transported six patients because of the wait time issues. >> all of our hospitals are feeling these impacts. it's not just one or two.

>> reporter: abc7news went to hospital emergency rooms in san jose today. we did not see ambulances lined up waiting. the county says this is expected and the numbers change minute by minute. >> we're having sporadic inns departments getting up around seven hours. that only happens on occasion. if that happens to you when you need access, it doesn't matter to you what the overall average is over an extended period of time. >> reporter: the long wait times are the newest example of how hospitals are stretched thin. not all hospitals are that the tipping point. in marin, the wait time is between 13 and 17 minutes. the highest it's been has been around 30 minutes, which is the state standard. the situation in santa clara county is enough to keep on guard. >> we're a few days out from new year's and things could change rapidly, so we have to be prepared for ha, the potential

for rapid change like we've seen elsewhere. >> and a dire warning tonight on the coronavirus outbreak in california. with governor newsom claiming a surge upon a surge is coming. david louis is live with what the state is doing to get ahead of this impending wave that has so many people concerned. david. >> reporter: well, dan, one figure stands out in what governor newsom provided. the number of hospitalizations have jumped 18%. they're experiencing a crunch and a need to enlist more providers to give vaccinations. icu capacity in the bay area remains just under 8%. the anticipated post holiday surge could test the ability to supply oxygen and staffing. in skae where icu capacity remains at 0%, there was little regard for and.

the state is preparing for the worst, they say. >> that goes to the urgency of not only this moment but the urgency we have placed in anticipation of this surge in anticipation of the surge on top of the surge coming. what we believe in the next number of days and weeks from the holiday season. >> another major concern is the new strain of coronavirus first detected in the uk. newsom says there are six confirmed cases. >> one is hospitalized. we have two individuals we identified in san bernardino teen avenue. >> the state is falling behind on administering vaccinations. almost 1.3 million doses have been received. even as more doses are on their way. the governor has reluctant to point fingers, emphasizing instead, utilizing dentists and pharmacies and even the national guard to get shots. >> you have to have a deep

urgency. i hear people that are expressing themselves very forthrightly and understandably around their anxiety of when do i get these doses. >> reporter: some health professionals have declined them, sometimes using unused doses. some flexibility is being allowed to allow those to go to others who may not be in the top tear. >> they may not be tier one, first, second tiers of 1 a. they might be in the third tier. >> now, this wednesday, the state vaccine advisory committee will talk about who will be given priority for vaccinations. among them teachers and food hammers. even among teachers it needs to be known if they'll be given the same priority as those who teach in classrooms. david louis, abc7news. >> all right, david, thank you.

tonight a new study from stanford is adding weight to the idea of front loading now to attack the current surge of cases. stephanie looks at the strategy and what it could mean. >> reporter: proffer joshua selman and his colleagues at stanford krumplgd the numbers for shipping covid vaccine. that takes into account that both the pfizer and moderna vaccines require two doses taken apart. that's to assure that enough second doses are readily available after a three week heard in case of supply disruption. >> i think the current scheme is really putting a premium on avoiding that worst case scenario of a vaccine supply, but the cost of that is that we're not making available as many vaccinations as possible. >> he believes spotting the

current surge in deaths could call for front loading the number of vaccine doses being released up steld. an alternative flexible model calls for dropping the amount down to just 10% and releasing the rest now while the virus is spiking, then making up the difference in later cycles. they believe it could prevent between 23 to 29% more new covid cases in the near term. >> this is a dangerous and critical time. we're looking at this two-month period and asking how can we maximize the potential benefit of the doses we have. >> the goal would still be to get patients a second dose within the prescribed time frame. at stanford, stephanie sierra, abc7news. >> we have a calculator on abc7news.com. if you want to know when it might be your turn to be vaccinated. >> in the north way, the chp is

investigating two separate deadly crashes. they happened on highway 12. a pickup truck crashed into a nissan killing the driver and the paengs passenger. a box truck flipped on its side. the driver of that toyota sadly was killed. this morning the search resumed for two children swept to see when a sneaker wave washed high on the shore. it happened west of santa rosa. wayne freedman was there as first responders talked about the difficulty of facing these kinds of tragedies. >> it's like a magnet. the rugged, sheer power of water and rocks colliding on the coast. at blind beach, it is up close, hard to resist and as the ocean reminded us yesterday can be deadly in an instant. >> today's a recovery operation

for two children. >> reporter: compounded by the loss of their father who appears to have died while trying to save them. the fire chief was one of the first to the scene. >> his wife was sitting on the rocks. >> what did she say? >> she couldn't say too much except she was crying. >> the family took a trail to the beach. what happened yesterday a typical sneaker wave. the family was along the cliff. they thought they were safe. a wave came in. they had nowhere to go. it washed them out to sea. >> despite a search, officials could not locate the four-year-old boy and his seven-year-old sister. only a trace as paramedics tried to find the father. >> all of a sudden a piece of clothing washed in and warned back out again and that made us realize there's somebody else still out there.

>> it's not uncommon. the last time was 2018. but this feels particularly tragic. resc rescue crews resumed their searching this morning. this may take two or three days or longer, past experience tells them. >> our goal is complete recovery. >> looping the sonoma county coast, wayne friedman, nbc 7 news. >> the danger remains. this is what it looks like in pacifica today. look at the waves. a high surf advisory remains in effect until 11:00 tomorrow night. there is a high incidence of the sneaker waves. drew has more. >> yeah. sneaker waves can start out looking very benign. it's essentially just two waves traveling at the same speed but those two waves can combine into a larger much stronger wave and that wave pushes farther ashore

and can take the feet right from under you and pull you into the ocean. that ocean water is so cold that once you're in the ocean's grip, you can go into shock because that water is so cold. it's called cold water paralysis. you can't even rescue yourself once you're in the dprip of the ocean. we deal with this a lot in the wintertime. that continues overnight tuesday as well. until 11:00 p.m. tomorrow. we're tracking more rain in the days ahead. we'll have that in the full forecast in a few minutes. >> all right. still ahead, new questions about a fatal hit and run. there is a lot of finger pointing over who's to blame. the top prosecutor is right in the middle. >> the move some are calling historic. google workers and their hope to google workers and their hope to form a if there's anything that this year has taught us, it's the things that matter: family. health. that's it. we found help at covered california. now we have a plan we can afford.

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new developments tonight in what has become a controversial safe. san francisco district attorney is meeting with family members of those involved in a deadly hit and run at 2nd and mission streets on new year's eve. this meeting comes as criticism mounts over the handle of the driver, a parolee with a long rap sheet. this is the response that many agencies could have done things differently. >> reporter: in a live interview, san francisco district attorney addressed the double fatal hit and run involving troy mcalister, who is out on parole. the case which ignited a firestorm from critics say this tragedy could have been preve prevented. he's been arrested in numerous time since april 10th 2020. he has a history of referring to

parole instead of prg. the parole office made a statement which provided you all the details needed to revoke bail but yet you chose to do nothing. why are you blaming the parole office instead of taking direct accountability here? >> this is about recognizing that there are numerous law enforcement agencies and that we all have to depend on each other to do the job properly. >> the california department of corrections and rehabilitation seine us this statement saying none of the parolees arrests have yet to result in filings. he was critical of police, referencing an incident when mcalister stole the car. >> they had his address, his phone number and most importantly they knew that he had a fire arm in his possession, and instead of going out and trying to arrest him or

instead of notifying his parole officer so they could do their job, they wrote in their report that they intended to bait until january 3rd. >> city police say their investigation followed all standard practices and procedures and that the january 3rd date he's referring to is actually an expiration date for follow-up. >> we're above and beyond what would normally be conducted on a vehicle death report. not unusual for our investigators or patrol officers to contact the parole. >> when we pressed him on his claims -- >> the fact of the matter is my office cannot prosecute cases until and unless the police present us with evidence that crime was committed. >> the department would not comment due to the ongoing investigation. i spoke with tony montoya, p of the police officers association union. >> that's an automatic.

if somebody's on parole, probation, you make the call to the parole officer. >> they did act in accordance to protocol. >> absolutely. >> monday afternoon he announced filing multiple felony charges. parole and my office could have done things differently and we'll review the case to prevent tragedies like this in the future. in san francisco, abc7news. >> lot of people in sill cop valley are talking about google workers taking the rare step to launch a union. they're forming the alphabet younes union. they want to ensure workers work without fear of abuse or discrimination. one of the biggest was in november of 2008. thousands of bay area google employees walked off the job to

protest how google handles sexual harassment claims. google says we've worked hard to create a workplace. we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees, end quote. the union is not ratifying itself through a federal agency. it won't have collective bargaining rights. even so, workers called the move historic. they say this is, quote, the first union at major tech company by and for all tech workers. >> more to come here. still ahead, a

for people with heart failure taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities. entresto helped people stay alive and out of the hospital.

don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. aah. will to that. the rain came coup in some spots today. kind of relaxing. this was the scene in almeida this morning. the city got a pretty good soaking. but then we also saw a little sun this afternoon. check in with meteorologist drew

to find out what's happening right now. drew. >> hi. a little bit of everything today. started out wet with a little bit of sunshine. tonight we'll see some fog developing. any steady rain that we had earlier this morning is pushed out. the wider view over the past 12 hours, showing you that rain sweeping through from north to south. you can see heavier pockets developed in the north bay. snow falling in the sierra. winter storm warning in effect until tomorrow morning. we could see as much as as as as of know. rainfall totals back here locally. a wide range. some high amounts in the north bay. a lot of spots exceeded an ichlg of rain, especially close to the klein. along the bay shoreline, about a quarter to an inch of rain. the santa cruz mountains, a hot of rain. san jose only took about one

hundred dretd of an inch of rain. right now we're in the mid and upper 50s and will track cooler air moving in tonight. in fact, tonight, much colder than last night. last night we kind of hovered in the upper 40s to lower 50s. tonight we'll fall into the high 30s or low 40s. tomorrow's going to look different than today. high pressures briefly in control. after that morning patchy fog it's a sunny afternoon with dry companies. then on wednesday we'll track our next front approaching, so it turns cloudy midweek here and we'll have some scattered showers. mostly sunny in the afternoon. temperatures mainly in the mid 50 to 60 degrees. storm impact scale, we'll track a level one light system on wednesday, light showers.

the best chance will really be in the north bay and it looks like rainfall amounts really light, less than a quarter of an inch. future weather, as we go hour by hour on wednesday, there you can see some showers in the north bay midday and as the front moves south, it does fall apart. it looks like the south bay will wiped up with low rainfall totals. there are those showers weapons. it stays unsettled thursday and friday. no day is a wash out. but certainly keach the rain gear handledy because showers will be fauf at least through friday. >> ok. >> thanks, drew. >> take a look at this frightening rescue in upstate new york. a skier dangling by her jacket after slipping off. she held on for two minutes before help arrived. she let go and fell right into a safety tarp below and was not

injured. all's well that ends well. scary stuff. >> still ahead, the

on abc7news at 6:00, the state's covid vaccine advisory committee says a majority of covid advantage seeps could be wasted. so we sat out to get answers. >> thefts, burglaries,break ins, graffiti. >> they say the stay-at-home order creates opportunity for criminals. as covid cases climb, flu cases are plummeting. a look at what's behind that dramatic drop. all coming up in half an hour at 6:00. hope you can join us then. the 49ers are vowing to rebound from a disappointing season. >> yeah. the niners dropped their final game yesterday to the seattle seahawks finishing with a six

and ten record. they talked about adversity. the two players became a bit choked up when talking about the future. a pro bowl fullback kyle on his pending free agency. >> i think c.j.'s a hell of a quarterback and i know he's going to get an opportunity to play, but i lo the guy will definitely miss him. >> there's an interesting exercise to, you know, explore those opportunities, but definitely has -- you know, it hits a little harder when it's reality and you got me. it's right here. so -- >> bittersweet emotion. bittersweet emotions there today, obviously. this team, they struggles all season with injuries. and sometimes that brings you closer, you know, even when winning. >> absolutely.

well, next season, dan. all right. thanks for joining us tonight. world new california phones offers free specialized phones... like cordless phones. - ( phone ringing ) - big button, and volume-enhanced phones. get details on this state program. visit right now or call during business hours. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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or call during business hours. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the first confirmed case of that highly contagious covid variant now detected here in new york. and news coming in tonight, the emergency lockdown now because of this variant in the uk. that highly transmissible variant of the virus now discovered in at least four states here in the u.s. this time, the patient a 60-year-old man in saratoga springs, new york. no history of any travel, which suggests community transmission. three others where he works testing positive. it is unclear if they also have this newer strain. tonight, the race to vaccinate now even more urgent. why is the government so behind? after promising 20 million shots by the end of the year, they've done just 4.5 million. our cameras inside this boston lab tonight, where scientists are now conducting tests to see