Covid-19-related cases and deaths continue to break records in southern California, clogging hospitals and causing a shortage of available intensive care beds: fewer than 100 were still free Tuesday, December 15 in Los County Angeles, which has ten million inhabitants.
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Equally worrying was the situation in neighboring Ventura and Riverside counties, which were using 99 percent and 100 percent of capacity, respectively, according to local health officials.
Across Southern California, the availability rate of intensive care beds fell to 1.7% on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom said.
Of course, this shortage does not mean that patients are left on the streets, but it forces hospitals to admit them to other, less suitable services, which risks increasing mortality, the experts note.
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Many people may think that there is nothing to worry about because hospitals can always add new beds.
The reality is that every bed requires highly skilled and trained caregivers, and we don't have an endless supply.
And those who are there to save lives every day are exhausted,
”insists Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health.
In this county, hospitalizations related to the coronavirus are six times higher now than in mid-October and the arrival of the vaccine, the first doses of which were symbolically administered on Monday in Los Angeles, will not have a noticeable impact. before several months.
Dr Ferrer and her Californian counterparts are all the more worried that, despite the additional restrictive measures enacted in early December throughout the state, new infections and hospitalizations are expected to continue to increase in the days to come.
In some establishments, ambulances may already have to wait four to five hours before they can hand over the patient they are transporting to a hospital ward.
Ventura County Health Officer Robert Levin notably singled out people who continue to meet for parties, religious services in closed places and sports competitions between young people, all activities officially prohibited.
“
The numbers are going to be astronomical.
People will die needlessly,
”lamented Dr. Levin, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
In Los Angeles, the prosecutor has just filed a lawsuit against a nightclub that continued to operate clandestinely in the city center since the start of the pandemic, demanding its permanent closure.
As of Tuesday, more than 1.6 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 21,000 deaths had been recorded in California since the start of the pandemic.
