SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – For Caroline Brandenburger, the coronavirus outbreak that has dominated California hospitals comes at a very personal price.
“Only today we had two deaths in this unit. And that’s the norm, ”said Brandenburger, who works at the COVID-19 unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, south of Los Angeles. “I usually see one to two each shift. Super sad. “
“They struggle every day and struggle to breathe every day, even with tons of oxygen. And then you just watch them die, “said Brandenburger.” They just die. “
California has prevented the increase in cases for months, but now the virus is out of control there, as it has been in many other states. Arizona alone overcomes California in cases per resident, and with 40 million residents, the huge state is seeing an impressive number of cases: more than 2.5 million confirmed infections.
A sudden increase after Halloween and Thanksgiving Day has produced a record hospitalization rate, and now the most seriously ill patients are dying in unprecedented numbers. California health officials reported Thursday 583 new deaths and a two-day record total of 1,042.
There have been more than 28,000 COVID-19 deaths in the state since the pandemic began.
Hospitalizations are approaching 22,000, and state models project the number to reach 30,000 on February 1. Many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas are struggling to stay updated and alerted that they may need to ration care, as intensive care beds are shrinking.
Lawmakers and public health officials have repeatedly praised medical workers as heroes in their struggle to treat the infected. Many nurses who were already struggling are now taking care of more patients than is normally permitted by state law, after the state began issuing exemptions that allow hospitals to temporarily bypass a strict nurse-patient ratio law.
The nurses at St. Joseph Hospital illustrate the price that comes with the job.
“This week was probably the most difficult for me physically and emotionally,” said Donna Rottschafer, a nurse at the COVID-19 unit. “I’ve been here for 21 years and I’ve seen more people dying in the past week – in the past few weeks, in fact – so it’s almost combined throughout my career as a nurse. “
“We are treating patients who are at the limit of oxygen, who are basically suffering,” she said.
North of Los Angeles County, the numbers released on Thursday showed a new number of daily cases of almost 20,000, an increase of 66.5% over the previous day, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The more than 8,000 hospitalized people were the highest number since the pandemic began early last year, said Garcetti.
The municipality has a quarter of the state’s population, but is responsible for about 40% of COVID-19 deaths.
Garcetti said federal officials should step in to send vaccines, money, doctors and personal protective equipment to the region, noting that medical workers and PPE flooded New York when it peaked at the beginning of the pandemic.
“This is our peak and we need you,” said Garcetti. “We need national leadership, we need vaccines and we need the resources to pay for them. Give it to us and we’ll know how to get the job done. “
Los Angeles is one of 14 counties in the two hardest hit regions – southern California and the San Joaquin agricultural valley – which for about two weeks were left without beds in intensive care units for patients with COVID-19.
The availability of intensive care at Bay Area hospitals fell to its lowest levels so far, falling from 7.4% to just 3.5% on Wednesday, according to state data. The Northern California region, which includes 11 mainly smaller and rural counties, had the best capacity at around 25%.
Earlier this week, state health officials caught hospitals off guard and confused them with new orders, limiting non-essential surgeries and requiring hospitals with little ICU space to accept patients from those who ran out, an order that may require transfer. of patients for hundreds of kilometers.
During a previous outbreak, patients in Imperial County along the border with Mexico were sent to hospitals as far away as the San Francisco Bay area. But the current outbreak is so widespread that only 11 mostly rural counties north of Sacramento and San Francisco are above the state’s limit of having at least 15% of the capacity for coronavirus patients in ICU beds. Those below that level are under stricter restrictions on business operations.
The biggest fear is that hospitals will be inclined to ration care in a few weeks, when people who have ignored the rules of social detachment to meet with friends and relatives at Christmas and New Year start to attend for medical care.
Authorities asked people to avoid mixing families or traveling in hopes of slowing the spread of the infection and preventing what was called a sudden increase.
In an effort to keep people closer to home, the Newsom administration issued a more strident travel statement that says out-of-state people are “strongly discouraged” from entering California and Californians should avoid further non-essential travel. 120 miles from home.
“The next two or three weeks will define everything for us,” said Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles. “Our own behavior will dictate everything we do.”
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Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, John Antczak and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this story.