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Frontline employees in California filmed a video urging people to stay at home and not meet for the next vacation.
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In the video, doctors say the lack of social distance can “paralyze” the hospital system and result in more deaths.
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Nurses also discussed the devastating impact of the latest increase in the state’s COVID-19 cases on their mental health.
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Earlier this week, health officials reported that ICUs in San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were already at full capacity, meaning there is no room for new patients.
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As California struggles to cope with an increase in the number of cases and an alarming number of deaths from COVID-19, frontline workers in the state beg people to stay home and not gather for the holidays.
Doctors and nurses from three California health systems – Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Dignity Health – made the appeal in a video posted on YouTube on Wednesday.
In the clip, several workers warned that choosing to celebrate Christmas and New Year holidays indoors could overwhelm the state’s health system and shared the devastating impact that the increase in cases was having on their mental health.
The video also included images of patients lying on stretchers outside crowded hospitals.
“This increase is beyond what anyone could imagine,” said Pravin Acharya, an emergency physician, in the video. “If people continue to gather for the upcoming holiday, we will paralyze our hospital system.”
The hospital system that Acharya works for – Kaiser Permanente – said on Tuesday that 100% of its ICU beds were being used. They are now preparing to double rooms in their 36 hospitals to meet the 220% increase in patients with COVID-19 in the last month alone.
An intensive care specialist, Dr. Vanessa Walker, also said in the video: “If we continue to meet indoors at the pace we are at, many more of us will not see the holiday next year.”
California had an average of 252 daily deaths from coronavirus in the past week, a 73% increase from the previous two weeks, according to a Los Angeles Times tracker.
Last week, the state reported the highest number of daily deaths in the entire pandemic – 398 deaths within 24 hours, The New York Times reported.
The United States remains the country hardest hit in the COVID-19 pandemic, having recorded nearly 18.5 million cases and more than 326,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In Wednesday’s video, doctors also expressed their concern about how health care professionals will be able to cope with this alarming increase.
Acharya warned: “I worry about the resistance and mental health of us providers, our nursing staff. What happens if they get sick? Who’s going to come to the hospital to work?”
Hans Vega, a registered nurse, also said in the video, “I’m doing all this work for your families, for your friends, for people you know, and some people don’t take it seriously. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face.”
Health workers in the United States and around the world are facing a mental health crisis in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with psychologists telling Insider in April that stress can turn into chronic psychological problems if left unmanaged.
On Monday, the California Department of Public Health reported that the ICUs in San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were at full capacity.
On Monday, the California director of Health and Human Services also warned that units outside the ICU could also fill up soon.
“It is true that some regions may begin to exceed their existing declared hospital capacity, not just the capacity of the ICU, at the end of the month and at the beginning of January,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly at a news conference.
Some hospitals are already setting up tents and trailers as field hospitals to treat more patients.
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