Hospital officials on Tuesday called on the public to take precautionary measures against the coronavirus as cases and staff and space in local hospitals are reduced to dangerous levels.
At Riverside Community Hospital – where officials said 214 COVID-19 patients are currently being admitted – a former cafeteria was transformed over the past weekend into an alternative care space to accommodate patients waiting in the emergency department for a handle hospital bed.
“What I see is devastation,” hospital chief nurse Annette Greenwood told City News Service. “I have been a nurse for 33 years and have never seen anything like it.”
She said the current increase in coronavirus cases is mostly due to Thanksgiving events. The potential impact of the Christmas holidays has only just begun to appear.
“I think we have not seen at all what the Christmas boom is going to look like there. And that is what scares us to death. They are talking about doubling the numbers we are currently seeing and that will overwhelm us,” Greenwood said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that Americans can expect to receive their COVID-19 direct payment via direct deposit, as early as Tuesday night.
The California National Guard has deployed nine members of its medical staff
corps to assist the hospital’s emergency department and six nurses to
ICU, but officials said the hospital remains short-staffed, with an ICU though
completely full.
“There are no extra resources to acquire in terms of nurses,” Greenwood said. ‘People take extra shifts. That’s all for these COVID patients. Because of the risk, you may not be able to have your family with you, so we pray with these patients. We help them connect their families, we sing with them and when needed, we are the last hand to hold on before people pass into eternity. And so the tension emotionally, coupled with physical, just overwhelming for the team. ‘
Kaiser Permanente’s Riverside and Moreno Valley medical centers reported that their intensive care units were also in power and that they had to convert meeting rooms, waiting rooms and other parts of the hospitals into patient care areas as part of their training plan.
According to officials, 211 COVID-19 patients are being treated.
Officials at Riverside University Health System-Medical Center said the facility was implementing a training plan and that the ICU was overworked, with beds in other parts of the hospital filling up quickly.
“I just can not reach out enough to say please wear a mask, please social distance. Do not gather on New Year’s Eve, please do not,” Greenwood said.
According to RUHS, coronavirus hospitalizations nationwide were 1,367, which was 40 from Thursday. This includes 282 patients in the intensive care unit, 27 more than last week.
The number of people with COVID-19 in intensive care units has increased by 151% since November 27.