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California could see 100,000 hospitalizations in January
Dec. 22, 2020 at 5:00 am
Don Thompson, Associated Press
California has recorded half a million coronavirus cases in the last two weeks and could have nearly 100,000 hospitalizations in the next month.
Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged Monday that a state projection model shows hospitalizations in that range and that he’s likely to extend his stay-at-home order for much of the state.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said the state fears some hospitals “may go beyond the existing surge capacity that they currently have planned.”
In response, the state is updating its planning guide for how hospitals would ration care if everyone can’t get the treatment they need, Ghaly said. It still hopes to avoid reaching that stage by beefing up staffing, makeshift hospitals and mutual aid with regions that might have precious remaining beds.
As pandemic surges, California hospitals move to ration care
As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread unabated, infecting tens of thousands every day throughout California, overwhelming health care systems and completely filling intensive care units (ICUs), hospitals are moving to implement plans to ration care, withholding it from those deemed unlikely to survive the disease.
This disaster is not unpredictable but the outcome of the bipartisan “herd immunity” policy pursued by the ruling class refusing to close non-essential workplaces and schools with full compensation which has allowed the virus to spread unabated, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives for corporate profits.
LOS ANGELES (AP) Medical staffing is stretched increasingly thin as California hospitals scramble to find beds for patients amid an explosion of coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm the state s emergency care system.
As of Sunday, more than 16,840 people were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections more than double the previous peak reached in July and a state model that uses current data to forecast future trends shows the number could reach 75,000 by mid-January.
More than 3,610 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care units. All of Southern California and the 12-county San Joaquin Valley to the north have exhausted their regular ICU capacity, and some hospitals have begun using “surge” space. Overall, the state’s ICU capacity was just 2.1% on Sunday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) California Gov. Gavin Newsom is back in a precautionary coronavirus quarantine for the second time in two months as surging COVID-19 cases swamp the state’s hospitals and strain medical staffing.
Newsom will quarantine for 10 days after one of his staffers tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday afternoon, the governor’s office said. Newsom was then tested and his result came back negative, as did the tests of other staffers who were in contact.
Last month, members of the governor’s family were exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. Newsom, his wife and four children tested negative at that time.