maria raven, chief of emergency medicine with ucsf. dr., thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> you have been on the frontlines of covid-19 since the first day of the pandemic in 2020. how is the strain on healthcare workers now compared to previous surges? what are you seeing? >> it is a little different, i think, when we had previous surges with other variants, we were thinking more when our patients came in about, are we going to have this patient in respiratory distress that we will need to put on a ventilator? now it is different with omicron, we are actually seeing more patients come into the emergency department that are positive at 19, but the vast majority, we are able to send home because they are not as sick. >> that's good news. when you are having people come in, do you find they are actually able to be released quicker because they are recovering quicker? >> i cannot speak to that as much because i'm not on the inpatient side, but i can say that people are coming in, by and large are not admitted an

maria raven, says if you test at home and have mild symptoms, stay home. >> test positive and want to, emergency department, not the place to do it. >> reporter: nbc bay area news. >>> hospitalizations are going up as case count rises. almost every number here illustrates how contagious the omicron variant is. increase 5:30%, and contra costa county, 475%. san francisco county doing better than most, increase of 185%. >> late tonight, union leaders have reached a deal with san francisco unified after several days of what parents call unsafe conditions at schools. the deal offers weekly voluntary testing at school sites to provide n95 and kn95 masks or students and teachers and to give staff ten covid sick days. despite the deal, some parents are still raising money to buy students high quality masks to wear in class asap. supervisor who is also a parent said she donated at her daughter's elementary school because the need is urgent. >> so the parents decided to take it upon ourselves through pta and raise money through one of those sites where you can collectively raise money. we're u

maria raven is the chief of emergency medicine at ucsf. >> everyone is feeling pretty mentally and physically exhausted in the er. er. every time i am in the department, patients are waiting to be triaged. >> as raven and her team are preston, eight nurses out sick yesterday. her emergency department is filling up with people trying to get a covid test. >> how long has that been happening? >> it has been for about the past three or four weeks. no one can find a rapid test anywhere. >> the i team found the problem is facing hospital systems in every bay area county. it has even caused a backlog at san mateo county june -- general. >> the testing volume is increased. they don't have the ability to o turn away people, especially if they are some dramatic. >> this is the county health emergency preparedness manager. she says on average, emergency departments across the county seat 500 patients per day but now that number is up to 750 patients per day. >> a significant surge for our emergency department. >> are you finding patients in need of care are having to wait? >> it is taking longer. patien

maria raven, emergency dr. at ucsf. what we want to do this block is what you are seeing in the or and what life is like there at ucsf because bussey for doing what you do. it may not be easy with this influx of people coming in. dr. raven: yeah, thank you so much. i worked monday night and we are very, very busy. the city is actually up 20% prior years. it's very, very high the past week or two, a lot of ambulance traffic, lovesick patients coming in, not necessarily for covid, but for lots of other things. our volumes are starting to go up in the emergency department and we are having a lot of people come in with covid symptoms that want to be tested because they can't get their hands on rapid tests anywhere else. so we do have a large number of people that are wondering if they have covid to get tested. the emergency department is not the best place to do that. i do understand people sometimes feel desperate. they can't get their hands on tests anywhere else. we do have to have covid positive patients unless acutely

. >> maria raven is the chief of emergency medicine at ucsf. >> what is it like in the er right now? >> everyone is feeling for the mentally and physically exhausted. we are seeing a lot of sick patients, and bill's traffic is up 20% in the city over the last week so every time i am in the emergency department, there are basically amulets is lined up outside of our department and patients waiting to be triaged. >> as raven and her team are already pressed then, eight nurses out sick yesterday, even if you are on duty today. her emergency department is filled up with people trying to get a covid test. price how long has that been happening? >> for about the past three or four weeks have seen this because no one can find a rapid test anywhere. >> the i team found the problem is facing hospital systems in every bay area county. it even caused a backlog triaging patients. >> the testing volume going into this is increased. they don't have the ability to really turn away people. especially if they are symptomatic. but they don't need urgent care. >> this is the county's health emergency p