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Rescue operation in Hawthorne near Los Angeles: "Very hard decisions"
Photo: APU GOMES / AFP
Rescue workers in the US district of Los Angeles are no longer allowed to bring certain patients with a low chance of survival to hospitals due to the overload caused by the corona crisis.
If resuscitation on site fails in the event of a cardiac arrest, the patients should "not be transported," according to an order from the emergency services.
In addition, the administration of oxygen to patients with low oxygen saturation in the blood of less than 90 percent should be limited, as stated in another directive of the service.
"The worst is still ahead of us"
Many hospitals in the densely populated district "have reached a crisis point and are already having to make very tough decisions about patient care," said the head of the health department, Christina Ghaly, of the Los Angeles Times.
The hospitals are now facing a new wave of Covid 19 patients after the holidays.
"It's almost certain that the worst is yet to come," she said.
The hospitals would be literally flooded with corona patients.
In many places, ambulances would have to wait hours before patients could be admitted, Ghaly said.
She urged people to only go to hospitals in absolute emergencies.
Around ten million people live in the Los Angeles district, which also includes the metropolis of the same name on the west coast.
On Monday alone there were 9142 newly confirmed corona infections and 77 deaths related to the virus in the district.
According to authorities, around 830,000 confirmed infections and around 10,300 deaths have been recorded in the district in the US state of California since the start of the pandemic.
However, experts assume a high number of unreported cases.
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mxw / dpa
