LOS ANGELES (AP) – California health officials on Saturday reported a record total of 695 deaths from coronaviruses in one day, as many hospitals suffered tensions in unprecedented cases.
The death toll in California since the pandemic began has risen to 29,233, according to the state Department of Public Health website.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations are almost 22,000, and state models project the number to reach 30,000 by February 1.
A spate of cases after Halloween and Thanksgiving has produced a record hospitalization in California, and now the most seriously ill patients are dying in unprecedented numbers.
Many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas are already struggling to stay updated and alerted that they may need to ration care, as intensive care beds are shrinking.
All beds in the intensive care unit at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard are full, and emergency rooms are full in Ventura County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, reported the Ventura County Star.
When a blue code sounds at the hospital signaling cardiac arrest, Nurse Yesenia Avila says a little prayer.
The codes have come frequently. On a specific shift, she said that three patients with COVID-19 died within an hour.
“We have never seen so much death before,” Avila told the newspaper. “I have been in the healthcare field for 22 years and I was never afraid. At the moment, I am … I fear for my children. “
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.
The post-Christmas increase was getting worse in Los Angeles County, where figures released Thursday and Friday showed a new daily number of nearly 20,000, significantly above the average of about 14,000 new cases per day last week. In all, 100,000 new cases were reported this week.
With the new figures released this Saturday, the municipality has surpassed 12 thousand deaths caused by COVID-19 – 1,000 of which occurred in the last four days.
“The speed with which we are reaching terrible milestones in COVID-19 deaths and cases is a devastating reflection of the immense spread that is occurring across the county,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “And this accelerated spread reflects the many unsafe actions that individuals took during the holiday.”
Dr. Paul Simon, head of science for the county’s Department of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times he expects the number of hospitalizations and deaths to remain high throughout January because of what happened during the holidays.
“We will see high levels of hospitalization and, unfortunately, deaths for at least the next two to four weeks.”
Los Angeles County has a quarter of the state’s population, but accounts for about 40% of COVID-19 deaths.