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“Our hospitals are under siege and our model shows no end in sight,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services in Los Angeles, said Wednesday.
At the time of this writing, there are nearly 1,000 corona patients admitted to intensive care units in Los Angeles, and the numbers are increasing daily.
On Friday there were 14,260 infected and 99 new deaths from corona, according to figures from the Los Angeles Times.
– All nursing home residents vaccinated in January
Can overwhelm the intensive care unit
Now more people are warning that county hospitals will be hit by a “wave of patients,” which is much larger than the more serious forecasts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
While the total number of intensive care units in Los Angeles hospitals is 2,500, forecasts say there may be between 1,600 and 3,600 hospitalized by early January if the infection trend continues.
“There just aren’t enough trained staff to handle the volume of patients that are expected to come in and need care,” Dr. Ghaly said, according to the newspaper.
According to the newspaper, there are only 100 intensive places available in the county.
«PATIENT WAVE» ALERT: Forecasts say that the number of intensive care patients may overwhelm hospitals. Photo: NTB / Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / Shutterstock
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Gloomy divination
Ghaly warns of exhausted doctors and nurses, a higher chance that the sick will die, and that medical staff will be forced to ration beds in the intensive care unit if hospitals are overwhelmed.
Staff are already trying to free up space in the hospital by discharging patients as soon as possible, but there is limited time they can spend before the quality of patient care deteriorates.
– So today in Los Angeles, let me be clear: we have a problem, says Ghaly and continues:
– And at this point, everything that hospitals can do to improve these days and weeks to come, he says.
Increased infection after Thanksgiving
Last week, NTB reported that in the United States, more than 200,000 new cases of infection were detected daily, a 16 percent increase since Thanksgiving.
Ghaly also points out, among other things, that many Americans traveled over Thanksgiving weekend as one of the reasons for the growing infection trend in Los Angeles.
– We see the effect of what happened on Thanksgiving. It doesn’t seem like enough people have heard and followed the message: stay home and avoid meetings with others, says Ghaly.
THANKSGIVING: The amount of travel during Thanksgiving weekend may be the reason for the number of patients in hospitals, according to the director of health services in Los Angeles. Photo: NTB / Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / Shutterstock
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America’s leading infection control expert called on Americans to limit travel on Thanksgiving Day out of fear of being taken to crowded airports and the accompanying spread of infections.
Yet nearly 1.2 million people visited U.S. airports on Sunday after this year’s November 26 celebration, which is the highest number since before the pandemic broke out.
In early December, infection control chief Anthony Fauci said he feared that the spread of infection associated with the Christmas celebration could be an even greater challenge than Thanksgiving.
Fauci said he understands that Americans are starting to get tired of coronary restrictions and want to celebrate Christmas with friends and family. But the country is in a critical phase where things can get much worse, he warned.
– This can be even worse because it is a much longer vacation. It starts several days before Christmas and continues until after the New Year, Fauci said.
