Ambulances placed on alert while Los Angeles hospitals flooded by COVID-19 patients

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles health officials told first aid to stop bringing adult patients who cannot be resuscitated to hospitals, citing a lack of beds and staff, as the latest increase in COVID-19 threatened overburden health systems in the country’s second largest city.

The order, issued on Monday night and with immediate effect, marked an escalation in measures taken by state and local officials across the country in the face of the alarming increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

Ambulances were forced to wait several hours to discharge patients at some Los Angeles hospitals, causing delays throughout the county’s emergency response system.

“Patients in total traumatic arrest who meet the current Ref 814 criteria for determining death should not be resuscitated and should be determined to be dead on the spot and not transported,” said Marianne Gausche-Hill, medical director of the Emergency Medical Services Agency of the Los Angeles County on the directive.

Ref 814 refers to the county’s policy for determining and pronouncing the death of a patient who has not been transported to a hospital.

California, the most populous state in the United States, was hit particularly hard by the latest wave of coronavirus, which some public health officials attribute to Thanksgiving holidays in November. Los Angeles is one of two counties in California that report a shortage of beds in intensive care units.

California reported 72,911 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a record of a single day since the pandemic began.

LAGGING VACCINES

More than 20.8 million people have been infected with the virus in the United States since March, and the death toll is 355,000. A record 129,000 patients with COVID-19 were in hospitals on Tuesday.

The worsening situation has increased pressure on state and local authorities to accelerate the distribution of the two coronavirus vaccines approved so far for emergency use.

Federal health officials said on Monday that more than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines manufactured by Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc and shipped within the United States still need to be administered.

But some health professionals began receiving their second injection of the Pfizer vaccine this week. Both vaccines require two doses three or four weeks apart.

The governors of New York and Florida said they would penalize hospitals that do not dispense injections quickly.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference on Tuesday. “If a hospital has already laid off all of its healthcare professionals, that’s fine, let’s get the supply back and go to the essential workers.”

Another 3 million doses of the two vaccines were sent to the United States on Tuesday, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in a statement, bringing the total to more than 19 million in 21 days.

The US government is considering halving doses of Moderna’s vaccine to free up the supply of more vaccines. But scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Modern said on Tuesday that it could take two months to study whether halved doses would be effective. [nL1N2JG2A4}