California on Thursday became the third state to exceeds 25,000 COVID deaths, following New York and Texas. In Los Angeles County, many funeral homes have been filled to date and health care professionals feel like they are under siege.
Hospitals in Southern California are at the breaking point with 1 in 5 COVID-19 tests returning positive.
“It’s just chaos,” said nurse Tavonia Ekwegh, who runs the ER at Anaheim Global Medical Center. Tents outside the medical center are filling up.
“This is a war zone, we have an ambulance after an ambulance,” Ekwegh said.
Hospitalizations are on track to double in January. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti put it bluntly: the ‘simple answer’ is that LA hospitals cannot handle twice as many patients.
“People will die in the corridors of our hospitals,” Garcetti said. “Our behavior will determine whether people live or die as much as any action the hospital takes.”
He sends out extra patrols to close New Year’s Eve parties. He estimates that “probably more than 1,000” officers will be on the streets.
His message to city residents is to ‘be saviors, do not be murderers’.
“When 95% of people do the right thing, it’s still dangerous, let alone when 80% of the people do the right thing, and it’s disastrous,” Garcetti said.
And for Garcetti, the pandemic is now personal.
“Our own daughter went on a fast food ride and did one shopping round,” Garcetti said. “She got a positive COVID-19 test. We did everything right and still it came to our house.”
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