The holiday season has now manifested itself in the worst increase in new COVID-19 cases in California since the onset of the pandemic, forcing state hospitals and ambulance personnel to make life-and-death decisions about who to treat.
Confirmed new cases of coronavirus broke records in the first week of the year, with more than 74,000 people testing positive on Monday alone. The state continued with reports of astonishing scores, ending the week with a reported 695 deaths on Saturday, setting a new record for the state’s death toll one day. Since early last year, more than 2.5 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the state, and according to Johns Hopkins University, nearly 28,000 people have died from the disease.
‘There have been many days that during your shift, after your shift, you just scratch your head a little while appreciating how fast it is spinning, and trying to get everything happening around you. “Dr. Sam Torbati, an emergency physician and medical director of the Ruth and Harry Roman Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told Yahoo News. “Patients are so incredibly sick and there are so many of them.”
Los Angeles County saw the bulk of the boom after the holidays, averaging about 13,500 new cases a day and 184 daily deaths due to COVID-19 during the past week. This is the equivalent of someone dying of COVID-19 every eight minutes.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that 259 people died of COVID-19 on Wednesday, more than all the homicides recorded in the city in 2019. More than 11,000 people, 40 percent of the state, have died from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. Officials expect the alarming rate to rise as many test venues were closed during the New Year’s holidays.
“We are likely to experience the worst conditions in January in which we have experienced the entire pandemic, and it is difficult to imagine,” Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in LA, said during a briefing on Monday, adding that the increase in numbers a ripple effect attributable to holiday parties and returning travelers.
On Thursday, the governor’s office of emergency services in California responded to the growing emergency by distributing 88 cool trailers to use as temporary mortuaries.
Hospitals in the state, especially Southern California, are run by dr. Nicole Groningen of the Cedars Sinai Medical Center describes being on its “breaking point”, and health workers warn that the health care system could be on the verge of collapse.
California Govin Newsom said at a coronavirus briefing Monday that 96 percent of LA County hospitals diverted ambulances to other facilities over the weekend due to emergency overcrowding.
‘This latest boom has been incredible with the numbers coming in. They are young, they are older. They are everywhere in the spectrum, ”says Torbati.
“I’ve never seen a healthcare system move up that level.” says Scott Brickner, a nurse in the Cedars Sinai Medical Center’s medical intensive care unit, and his voice breaks with emotion. “Going to work is … to say the least, really stressful if you have to mentally motivate yourself to just be ready for anything.”
It has been more than two weeks since the state reported that its intensive care units had reached maximum capacity. Hospitals are now starting to break out most of the holiday season, as the numbers have just started pouring in from Christmas and the New Year. In Los Angeles County alone, more than 7,400 COVID-19 patients are being admitted to the hospital as of Tuesday, 21 percent of whom require treatment in intensive care units.
In response to the dire situation, the LA County Emergency Services Agency on Monday instructed to stop transferring patients to hospitals if they could not live again, and instructed paramedics to ‘restore their existing authority’. used to declare the death of a patient in the field if there is no pulse rather than transport the individual to a hospital “thus saving limited resources.
Cathy Chidester, director of the LA County Emergency Medical Services Agency, said in a statement to Yahoo News on Wednesday that transporting these patients to the emergency room was useless and further affected the hospitals.
In a separate memo, the province instructed emergency personnel to ration concentrated deficient oxygen, which prioritizes its use for patients with an oxygen saturation level of less than 90 percent.
“Paramedics are taking the determination after a full assessment, which includes measuring oxygen saturation in the blood, and considering certain known or suspected underlying medical conditions,” Chidester said.
“We have already started thinking carefully,” Torbati said. ‘It is appropriate for the province to also penetrate issues of resource management and applicability. The purpose of a pandemic and a crisis is always to try to help as many people as possible, but now it is even more important for us to make sure that we do not do it if it is not going to work. We still believe in heroism, but now we just need to make sure that the heroic efforts we can make for one individual do not ultimately hurt ten others. ”
Last week, the home stay order was extended indefinitely for LA County and the rest of Southern California. The province has also instituted a ten-day quarantine period for anyone traveling outside the region. Officials repeat the same public guidance they gave for months: wear a mask, social distance, avoid gatherings and wash your hands.
“If they break the rules, there are consequences,” warns Torbati, adding that there is hope at hand. ‘Stay there another six months, let the vaccines be available to the large population from time to time, and we’ll go through it. We just need everyone to be on the same page. ”