Long waiting times to unload patients in critically overcrowded Los Angeles County hospitals are increasingly preventing ambulances from responding to other emergency calls, officials said on Thursday – the latest repercussion of the rampant and widespread increase in coronavirus that is affecting the region’s health system.
Sometimes, up to 10 ambulances stand in line waiting to drop off patients, and “we had patients waiting in ambulance stalls outside [emergency departments] for seven hours, eight hours, ”said Cathy Chidester, director of the LA County Emergency Medical Services Agency.
“We are running out of ambulances and our responses to 911 calls are getting longer and longer,” she said during a news conference on Thursday.
In Antelope Valley, “response times are getting longer,” forcing authorities to start relying on ambulance companies that are not traditionally used to answer calls to 911, according to Chidester.
And in other parts of the county, officers are working with firefighters to equip hospital ambulance cubicles to help unload patients more quickly so vehicles can get back on track.
Unlike other cataclysms, such as a fire or an earthquake, Chidester said that the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals was a “hidden disaster”, which is not immediately apparent to the public.
But make no mistake, she emphasized, “we are in the middle of a disaster.”
“You can see the expression in the team’s eyes. It’s like the deer in the headlights, ”she said. “They are overwhelmed. They are pale. They are trying to do the best they can with limited resources right now because there are so many patients. ”
As the COVID-19 crisis worsens and the number of infected individuals requiring professional care continues to increase, some hospitals need hours to make room for new patients arriving by ambulance; sending personnel to treat the people themselves in the ambulances; or, in particularly strenuous moments, to temporarily close the doors to ambulance traffic.
There have been such long delays in patient discharge that there have been “some unfortunate results,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for LA County, this week.
The effects of an overburdened health system spread far beyond those infected with COVID-19. Authorities recently expressed concern that people suffering from strokes, heart attacks and seizures are suffering outside hospitals without receiving the timely care they urgently need.
Even those who suffer from more sudden emergencies, such as in a car accident, may not be able to get the medical care they need if conditions continue to worsen.
It is a “very dire situation that hospitals face,” said Ghaly on Thursday, and “this increase is taking all hospitals in the county to the brink of catastrophe.”
However, not everyone who arrives at the hospital is lucky enough to come home. The virus has killed more Californians on each of the past two days than on any other day throughout the entire pandemic – a consecutive attack that has propelled the state’s total death toll to more than 25,000.
California is the third state to achieve this morbid mark, joining Texas and New York.
In the past three days, more than 1,100 people across the state have died of COVID-19, including a record 442 on Tuesday and the second highest total, 424, on Wednesday.
These numbers represent approximately the equivalent of a person dying from the disease every three and a half minutes.
The situation has become so bleak that some operators in morgues and funeral homes are saying that they need to refuse bereaved families because they are unable to handle more bodies.
In Los Angeles County, which officially exceeded 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, officials said they are now seeing about 150 people dying from COVID-19 each day – a number that is almost as high as the average number. of people dying daily from every other cause.
This is equivalent to an Angeleno dying every 10 minutes.
Beginning at midnight on Thursday, county officials began posting new messages on Twitter in that interval, describing someone who may have just lost his battle with COVID-19: the director who stayed late to watch all the school supplies, an emergency room nurse who did double shifts for months on end, the local activist who worked to uplift a community, a dear co-worker or friend, a dear family member.
Each message was scored with the same appeal: “Decrease the spread. Save a life. “
“The sad thing is that if we had done a better job of reducing the transmission of the virus, many of these deaths would not have happened,” said LA County Director of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer.
The country’s most populous county also set consecutive records of daily deaths from COVID-19 this week, with 262 occurrences on Wednesday and 242 on Tuesday.
Although the recent numbers have been partially influenced by an accumulation of reports from the Christmas holiday weekend, officials say they represent a worrying reality: that some are now paying the final price for the decisions they or those they have entered into. in touch took weeks ago.
“We have a chance to fix it,” said Ferrer on Wednesday. “So, let’s start today by recognizing our shared humanity and responsibility to take care of each other.”
While there is some cautious optimism that the worst wave of the pandemic is starting to stabilize in some areas – although notably not in Southern California – the record number of recent deaths demonstrates the continued devastation caused by the coronavirus and, officials warn, they point to even darker days ahead if the state is hit by another wave due to widespread meetings and winter holiday trips.
California also must face the presence of a new variant of the coronavirus that some scientists believe is even more contagious. The strain, first identified in the UK, was detected in a 30-year-old man in San Diego County, and it is unclear how widely it may have circulated.
“The next number of weeks will be challenging, particularly with regard to this increase on top of an increase – I would argue about, again, a likely additional increase coming from Christmas and, hopefully, a slightly more modest one of the Year New, ”said Governor Gavin Newsom.
Everyone, he added, needs to be aware of the dangers posed by the pandemic.
“Please don’t just naively assume, think or believe that this is something that won’t affect you because you’re younger, it’s just ‘older people’,” he said on Wednesday.
As hospitals struggle to keep up with the flood of patients with COVID-19, the state has also mobilized 1,280 medical professionals – including the California National Guard medical corps – to assist with health operations, officials said on Thursday.
A particularly precious resource are beds in hospital intensive care units, needed for patients in the worst conditions.
Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley have consistently had 0% of the capacity available in their ICUs for about two weeks – a worrying measure that does not necessarily mean that there are no open beds, but that space, resources and staff are being extremely scarce.
ICU availability dropped to 8.5% in the Bay Area on Thursday, according to the state’s latest data, and was at 14.4% in Greater Sacramento.
All four regions are under state orders to stay at home, which aim to contain transmission of the coronavirus through strict limits on business and activities.
Although restrictions have met with resistance in some corners, with the ban on outdoor dining proving to be particularly questionable, officials and experts say they are bound by a fundamental truth: that the best way to contain the virus is to reduce the chances of spreading it. reducing interactions and mixing between different families.
During a virtual conversation with Newsom on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s leading infectious disease specialist, said it is incorrect to present the situation as a choice between public health or economic strength.
“We need to use public health measures as a vehicle, a gateway, a tool to recover the economy,” he said. “It is not economics versus public health. It is public health connecting you to recover the economy. This is what we have to understand, and not say: ‘I don’t want to do this because I want the economy to open up’. You will open up the economy when the level of infection decreases, and the only way to decrease the level of infection before the vaccine is administered is through public health measures. ”
The authorities strongly urged residents to stay at home and avoid the temptation to celebrate the New Year with someone they don’t live with.
San Francisco extended its coronavirus travel and stay quarantine requests indefinitely on Thursday, and state officials said the request covering the Greater Sacramento region would also “likely be extended based on initial ICU projections.”
Across the state, authorities asked residents not to meet for the holiday with people outside their homes.
“The steps we have taken together have served us well, but the fact is that San Francisco is in the midst of its worst peak yet,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of public health for the city. “We must continue to take the preventive measures that we know to reduce the spread of the virus and save lives.”
If these appeals fall on deaf people, the authorities warn that the turn of the calendar will bring more pain and suffering to a state that is already recovering from a year of incalculable losses.
“We absolutely need to control this increase and it will take everyone’s effort to do so,” said Ghaly. “If we don’t, the beginning of 2021 will be worse than the end of 2020. And this is not a situation that any of us want to happen.”
Times staff writers Maura Dolan, Soumya Karlamangla and Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.