LOS ANGELES (AP) – The overwhelmed hospitals in California are setting up makeshift extra beds for coronavirus patients, and a handful of facilities in hard-hit Los Angeles County are drafting contingency plans in case they need to limit how many people receive life-saving care.
The number of people hospitalized across California with confirmed COVID-19 infections is more than double the state’s previous peak, reached in July, and a state model predicts the total could be 75,000 patients by mid-January. to achieve.
Healthcare rationing plans are not yet in place, but they need to be drawn up because “the worst is yet to come,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, the director of health services for Los Angeles County.
While shipments of the vaccine are rolled out to many health professionals and nursing homes across the country, it could take months for the shots to be available to the general public. Until then, four Los Angeles County hospitals are weighing up what to do if they can’t treat everyone because of a shortage of beds or staff.
A document recently circulated to doctors at the four hospitals suggested that instead of trying to save each life, their goal could shift to saving as many patients as possible – meaning those less likely to survive the same. kind of concern.
“A compromise in the standard of care is inevitable; it is not that an entity, system or locale chooses to limit resources, it is that the resources are clearly not available to provide regular care, ”the document obtained by the Los Angeles Times said.
Many California hospitals have already implemented emergency procedures to expand staff and space.
Corona Regional Medical Center southeast of Los Angeles has converted an old emergency room to treat nearly double the number of ICU patients. It also uses two disaster tents to triage ER patients.
Overall, the state’s ICU capacity was only 2.1% on Sunday. Some hospitals have canceled non-essential elective surgeries, such as hip replacements, which could potentially take up beds that could soon be needed for COVID-19 patients.
Nurses say crushing cases means they have less time to spend with patients, many of whom are sicker than ever before.
“The more patients we have, the more likely we are to make a mistake, especially when we’re in a hurry,” said Wendy Macedo. a nurse at UCLA Health Santa Monica Medical Center. “We try to avoid that, of course, but we are only human.”
CVS and rival Walgreens began delivering shots at a number of long-term care locations in Connecticut and Ohio last week, and both companies said they would expand their programs in 12 states starting this week. Those states include Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and Vermont, CVS Health said Monday.
CVS plans to visit each location three times to give residents and staff a first chance and then boost them. It expects to complete the program in about three months.
Also Monday, President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public that the vaccinations are safe.
Biden took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital not far from his home in Delaware hours after his wife, Jill Biden, did the same. The injections came on the same day that a second vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, will arrive in states. It joins Pfizer in the nation’s arsenal against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 317,000 people in the United States and turned lives around the world upside down.
But because vaccinations are limited to spring or summer, political leaders continue to urge people to stay home and wear masks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked airlines flying to his state from the UK to have all passengers take a coronavirus test before boarding. At least one airline, British Airways, has agreed, the Democrat said.
Cuomo wants the US government to temporarily suspend flights from the UK due to the emergence of a new species of the virus in that country.
Scientists are working to determine if the species spreads more easily, said Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser for the U.S. government’s vaccination effort against COVID-19.
Tennessee government Bill Lee announced new restrictions on social gatherings on Sunday, while still refusing to perform a mask mandate, despite requests from primary care health workers. Tennessee, one of dozens of states without a mask mandate, has the highest new per capita cases in the country.
In lieu of a mask mandate, the Republican signed an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 people. However, places of worship, weddings and funerals are exempt.
With more than 2,300 virus patients hospitalized in Alabama and the number of cases steadily increasing, health officials made new calls for precautions to be taken.
“Our ICU is full and I am praying for a Christmas miracle,” said Dr. James Boyle, a pulmonologist in Decatur, Monday. ‘I hope that the prediction models are incorrect. I pray that the number of infections and deaths will decrease after Christmas. “
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Associated Press writers, Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.