Mayor Eric Garcetti said hospital officials are telling him and his staff that if Los Angeles continues the upward trend of COVID-19 hospital admissions through Christmas, medical facilities will “ go under, ” meaning they won’t be able to adequately maintain the corona virus. patients or patients with other conditions.
He also said a nationwide emergency warrant could be issued if hospitals are inundated with patients.
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“Some hospitals can convert non (intensive care) rooms into ICU rooms, but other hospitals cannot,” said Garcetti, while ambulances sometimes have to be diverted when a hospital is full.
An emergency statement, he said, could force the county to take tougher measures on businesses and order other closures to ensure that “we don’t have to have those harrowing visions of doctors deciding who gets that last fan and who doesn’t.” ‘
Garcetti said that if current trends continue for the next three to five weeks, the county’s health system “will be dead.”
He said an initiative has started to provide thousands of Los Angeles residents in need with $ 300 to run errands during the holiday season, with funding from the Los Angeles Mayors Fund, which is putting $ 550,000 into the initiative.
People who wish to donate to the effort should visit mayorsfundla.org/covid19 for more information, he said.
The dramatic coronavirus outbreak – which saw Los Angeles County daily records for new cases and deaths and general hospital admissions on Wednesday – has also prompted other officials to heed warnings to avoid gatherings and continue to keep at bay and carry masks.
“Based on the science of COVID-19 transmission, the devastation we are now experiencing is due to the fact that people who were unknowingly infected with the virus spend long enough in close or direct contact with another person or group to infect them, ” County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis said, ‘It may have happened at work or when they were traveling or visiting people away from home with whom they do not live with during the holidays, either here in the county or in another county or state or country. “
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As new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths generally reflect actions people took two weeks ago – based on the virus’ incubation period – health officials said the numbers will only get worse in the coming weeks.
Dangerous COVID-19 trends threaten to overwhelm emergency and intensive care units, officials say.
“What we really need to focus on now is that each of us and our family and friends and our colleagues and colleagues are doing whatever it takes to keep this infection from spreading as quickly and widely as it is,” Davis said. “… There is just too much risk in terms of the number of cases in the community being diagnosed every day. We are already seeing the impact it is having on our health care system, as well as the number of deaths being reported.”
Although vaccines are being administered in Los Angeles County and across the county, officials noted that it will not quell the current spate of cases and will not be widely available to the general public in the coming months.
“ The science of COVID-19 transmission also indicates that transmission occurs more easily in crowded areas with many people nearby, close-contact environments, especially where people have conversations very close together and in confined or closed spaces with poor ventilation, ” he said. ‘And that the risk of COVID-19 spreading is greater in places where these three conditions overlap.’
The impact of the virus burst on the emergency medical system was made clear Thursday morning, when the state announced that Southern California’s 11-county region had formally reached zero capacity in intensive care units. The designation does not mean no beds available as the state adjusts the capacity figure based on the ratio of COVID patients occupying ICU space.
ICU capacity drops to 0% in Southern California as state reports 379 new deaths, a smashing record
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, only 716 staffed and available beds were available in the 70 ‘911 receiving’ hospitals with emergency care on Thursday. Only 92 of those available beds were ICU beds, up from an estimated 102 on Wednesdays.
Hospitals in the province have a total licensed capacity of about 2,500 ICU beds, and hospitals have expanded the workforce in the past week to serve about that number.
Last week, provincial hospitals operated an average of about 10,360 non-ICU beds per day, based on physical space and available staff. In total, hospitals are licensed to operate about 17,000 non-ICU beds, but that number is limited by the availability of staff to treat patients.
The province reported a total of 4,864 COVID patients in hospitals on Thursday, about 200 more than the previous day and the highest level of the pandemic. About 20% of those people were in ICU beds, or about 973. The state’s website earlier Thursday put the county’s COVID hospital number at 5,100.
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“Our hospitals are under siege and the end of our model is not yet in sight,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, DHS District Director Wednesday, adding, “The worst lies ahead.”
Ghaly said hospitals averaged about 600 coronavirus shots per day, up from about 500 last week. Based on current trends, hospitals could allow between 750 and 1,350 new COVID admissions per day by the end of December, she said.
On Thursday, the district health department reported 102 additional fatalities from the coronavirus, although four of them were actually announced by health officials in Long Beach on Wednesday. Long Beach reported four more dead on Thursday afternoon, while Pasadena announced three more. The new fatalities have caused a total of 8,671 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Public health director Barbara Ferrer said the average daily mortality from COVID-19 in the province has increased 267% since Nov. 9, to 44 a day since last week, and is likely even higher this week given recent rising death rates. Ferrer said this amounts to two people in the province dying every hour from COVID-19.
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Another 14,418 COVID infections were confirmed in the province on Thursday. Long Beach health officials reported a further 993 cases Thursday afternoon, while health officials in Pasadena announced a daily record of 201 new infections. The new cases raised the cumulative total for the whole country to 581,519.
County officials said the local transmission rate for COVID-19 – the average number of people infecting each COVID-positive person with the virus – is now 1.2, compared to 1.16 a week ago. Any time the rate exceeds 1, the number of cases is expected to increase.
The province also estimates that one in 80 residents who are not hospitalized or in quarantine / isolation is infected with the virus, likely unknowingly or without showing symptoms, but is still capable of infecting others .
The Southern California region – which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties – is under a state-mandated regional stay-at-home warrant that includes meetings of people from different households are blocked and many businesses are forced to close, while the capacity of others is limited.
Waiver schools can remain open, as can “critical infrastructure” and shops, which are limited to 20% of capacity.
Restaurants are limited to takeout and delivery. Hotels are allowed to open “only to support critical infrastructure,” while churches would be limited to field services only. Entertainment production – including professional sports – should be allowed to continue without a live audience.
The order will remain in effect until at least December 28.
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City News Service contributed to this report.
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