Two days into the new year, Los Angeles County’s battle with
the relentless post-holiday coronavirus surge appeared destined to
intensify as health officials reported 138 more deaths linked to
the disease, which has now infected more than 800,000 people in the
region.
The county’s death toll climbed to 10,682 on Saturday, Dec. 2,
continuing to outpace resources at
local funeral homes and morgues, officials said.
Longtime broadcaster Larry King, 87, is among the 806,210 people
who have been infected with the disease, officials said Saturday.
The 87-year-old former CNN host is hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center,
according to reports.
Such cases have doubled in just over a month — the fastest
rise of new infections throughout the pandemic’s 10-month
siege.
The county’s daily report did not include updated numbers for
Long Beach and Pasadena, which operate their own health
departments. Pasadena reported 72 new cases for a total of 6951,
but its death toll remained at 167. As of Thursday, Long Beach
reported 401 deaths and 33,271 cases; the city didn’t issue new
numbers on Friday and Saturday.
Once again, facing 15,701 new cases, county Public Health
Director Barbara Ferrer renewed her urgent plea on Saturday:
“Our deepest condolences go out to the many families mourning
a loved one who passed away from COVID-19 and you remain in our
thoughts as we begin this new year,” she said in an all-too
tragically familiar Saturday statement. “The strategy for
stopping the surge is fairly straightforward. When people stay away
from other people, the virus cannot spread as it is doing
now.”
With their ICU
capacities at zero, local hospitals facing overtaxed oxygen
systems for their most ill patients began getting some aid Saturday
as expert teams from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived.
With an unprecedented demand on again hospitals because of
COVID-19, the facilities were struggling to maintain oxygen
pressure while treating a huge surge patients with respiratory
issues. Complicating the concern: Hospitals were facing shortages
in oxygen tanks to send home with discharged patients.
Hospitals receiving the assistance include:
- Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital in West
Covina; - Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City;
- Beverly Community Hospital in Montebello;
- Lakewood Regional Medical Center in Lakewood; and
- PIH Health Hospital in Downey.
“By working to upgrade challenged oxygen delivery systems at
these older hospitals we can improve the ability to deliver life
sustaining medical care to those who need it,” Mark Ghilarducci,
director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said in
a statement Friday.
California’s Department of Public Health on Saturday also put
out an urgent call for blood donations.
“Blood centers have an urgent need for all blood types right
now with the surge in #COVID19 cases,” according to the
agency’s Twitter feed. “Please make an appointment to donate
blood to support patients as soon as you are able by finding an
AABB blood center here: https://bit.ly/AABBdonate.”
Blood centers have an urgent
need for all blood types right now with the surge in
#COVID19 cases. Please make an appointment to donate blood to
support patients as soon as you are able by finding an AABB blood
center here: https://t.co/dSmK6WZcPv pic.twitter.com/OEA8aAxMk8— CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth)
January 2, 2021
In the meantime, patient demand at hospitals continued to strain
available resources. Though the number of people hospitalized in
the county dropped by 83 on New Year’s Day to 7,544, it was still
critically high, according to the state’s metrics. The number of
ICU patients fell a bit, by 13 from the previous day, to 1,587.
In a hospital system that serves 10 million residents, the
number of ICU beds left in the region is still a critically low
325, according to the state. The number has dwindled dramatically
from around 700 at the beginning of November.
Source:
LA County�
Dr. Barbara Carnes, medical director at Kaiser Permanente South
Bay Medical Center, along with her staff, are on the front lines of
the crisis. As of New Year’s Eve, the hospital was running 10%
beyond its normal winter capacity to take patients, Carnes
said.
With COVID-19-positive numbering 140 patients in the hospital,
with 26 of then in the ICU, Carnes said the hospital is bracing for
more in the days to come.
Officials are holding on to hope that measures taken over the
last nine months to increase capacity, as well as procure PPE and
ventilator, will keep the facility from moving from “contingency
care†to “crisis care.â€
“It would be really be heartbreaking for me as a physician if
we ended up in that place,†she said. “We aren’t at that
place. We hope we don’t get to that place and are doing
everything we can to avoid it.â€
In crisis care, hospitals shift into rationing and triage
protocols, where resources are devoted to treatment of those with
the best chances to live rather than throwing everything they’ve
got to save each life.
Carnes said the hospital continues to seek ways to convert more
space in existing patient rooms, doubling up patients in formerly
single-occupancy rooms and limiting surgeries to only the most
essential. The goal: Freeing up precious ventilators for COVID
patients.
Still, “the space is the easier part,†she said. “The
harder part is the staff.â€
A
staff member at a Kaiser Permanente hospital keeps watch on a
patient during mid-December coronavirus outbreak. (Kaiser provided
images, which were shot at their Southern California hospitals in
Fontana and Downey.) Photo: Courtesy Kaiser Permanente
Many healthcare workers gave up holiday off-time with families,
doubling their shifts to take on the influx, Carnes said.
As of Thursday, many of the region’s hospitals were diverting
ambulance to other sites because of staffing challenges, officials
said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said 96% of Los Angeles County hospitals
diverted ambulances to other facilities at some point last weekend
due to overcrowding in emergency rooms — up from a normal average
of 33%.
“Many hospitals have reached a crisis point and are having to
make many tough decisions about patient care,†said Dr. Christina
Ghaly, director of the county’s Health Services Department, at a
briefing Thursday.
Ghaly said five outpatient county-run clinics have closed and
others have reduced hours as 700 nurses were redeployed to bolster
depleted hospital staffs.
“This is simply not sustainable. Not just for our hospitals,
but for our entire health system,†Ghaly said.
Meanwhile, overburdened funeral homes are turning away grieving
families. One mortuary is averaging six times its normal rate, or
about 30 body removals a day,
according to a Saturday report in the Associated Press. The
head of the California Funeral Directors Association described
mortuaries as “inundated.â€
“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years and never in
my life did I think that this could happen, that I’d have to tell
a family, ‘No, we can’t take your family member,’†said
Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los
Angeles.
Related Articles
- 43
employees at Kaiser medical center in San Jose test positive for
COVID-19 - Coronavirus:
One shot instead of two to speed vaccination? - Larry King
has been hospitalized with COVID-19 - Belgian
St. Nick party for elderly leads to 27 virus deaths - California
funeral homes run out of space as COVID-19 rages
Healthcare providers are bracing for what’s to come. Just over
the last two days, officials cited potential “super-spreaderâ€
gatherings in Los Angeles, Hawthorne, Pomona and Malibu. The venues
included rented homes, vacant warehouses, hotels and shuttered
businesses.
“We are in a dark tunnel. We see that light,†Carnes said.
“We are confident that we are prepared and ready for January. But
we know it’s not going to be easy.â€
One thing keeping Carnes going, she said, is the Journey song
“Don’t Stop Believing.â€
She’ll be working in the hospital, and somewhere, the
customary staff song for a COVID patient who is being discharged
plays in the distance.
“You don’t know which floor. You don’t know which
patient,†she said.
“But you know that someone has won their fight and they are
going home.â€
Bradley Bermont, David Rosenfeld, Nick Green, City News Service
and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
