CALIFORNIA: National Guard Medical Troops Assist Hospitals
As California hospitals were slammed by waves of COVID-19 patients in December, the National Guard was called to lend a hand. With hospitals reaching a breaking point from an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases, Guard troops assisted at 13 facilities in the state. Each team consisted of about 6–10 medical corps members, led by a physician or a nurse. At the end of 2020 there were 20,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19 across California eight times higher than two months prior and ICU capacities were approaching 0%. Troops’ duties included offloading patients from ambulances and serving as extra pairs of hands for nurses.