MISSION VIEJO, California (Reuters) – Southern California is so overwhelmed with cases of coronavirus that there is backing that patients are trying to get into hospitals, and that corpses get stuck in another basement as soon as they leave.
In one Orange County hospital, ambulances are loaded with patients outside waiting for space in the intensive care unit, and COVID-19 patients fill the hallway in the emergency.
In nearby Los Angeles County, where people die every eight minutes from the disease, and other areas hit hard, cool trailers will be brought in to provide extra corpse storage capacity.
“When we are full of COVID patients, we cannot care for the community at large,” said Dr. Jim Keany, 54, the managing partner for emergency physicians at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, said. “Every bed is full, every nurse and doctor is caring for COVID patients.”
One patient waited more than five hours in the ambulance before being admitted, Keany said.
Despite stringent home measures intensified in most parts of the state last month, California, the most populous state with nearly 40 million people, leads the United States with nearly 2.6 million COVID-19 cases, more than a million more than the next state, according to a Reuters version of official data.
Its death toll from more than 28,000 routes alone is that of New York and Texas.
As the bodies piled up, the California Office of Emergency Services said they had arranged to send 88 trailers to needy areas in the state.
Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office spokeswoman Sarah Ardalani will receive ten hearses, in addition to 12 erected there in April.
Orange County officials had previously allowed hospitals to lead patients elsewhere to their fullness, but now that virtually all hospitals have reached capacity, the policy has been withdrawn, awaiting long-term treatment, Keany said.
“We push our carpenters and staff to the utmost to expand space where we can manage patients,” Keany said.
Dr. Robert Goldberg, 44, a doctor in pulmonary and critical care at Providence Mission Hospital, called on the public to reduce the threat by wearing masks, maintaining social distance and getting the vaccine as soon as possible. it is available.
‘COVID is real. It is life-threatening, “said Goldberg. ‘People of all ages are dying. We need to work together. We have to get through it together. ”
Reporting by Lucy Nicholson; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Jane Ross; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Edited by William Mallard