LOS ANGELES (AP) California s health care system is buckling under the strain of the nation s largest coronavirus outbreak and may fracture in weeks if people ignore holiday social distancing, health officials warned as the number of people needing beds and specialized care soared to previously unimagined levels.
Top executives from the state’s largest hospital systems Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health and Sutter Health, which together cover 15 million Californians said Tuesday that increasingly exhausted staff, many pressed into service outside their normal duties, are now attending to COVID-19 patients stacked up in hallways and conference rooms.
The CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, Dr. Elaine Batchlor, separately said patients there have spilled over into the gift shop and five tents outside the emergency department.
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The state s health care system is in the throes of a crisis stemming from Thanksgiving, officials said Tuesday
California reported 32,659 new cases Tuesday and another 653 patients were admitted to hospital
Across the US as a whole there were 3,131 more COVID deaths and 189,000 cases recorded Tuesday with a record 117,777 people in hospital; the seven day rolling death toll is at a record high of 2,654
Up to 100 maskless carol singers gathered outside a testing center in Thousand Oaks, California Tuesday
The Oaks Mall event was the second hosted by Growing Pains actor turned evangelist Kirk Cameron
Maskless carol singers on Tuesday performed outside a COVID-19 testing center in California - just as data shows the state s huge rise in cases is stopping the entire United States average from falling.
Officials say Christmas and COVID could break California s health care system
Phlebotomist lab assistant Jennifer Cukati, right, and Registered Nurse Carina Klescewski, left, care for a COVID-19 patient inside the Sutter Roseville Medical Center ICU in Roseville, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. The patient came in the night befo We don’t have space for anybody. We’ve been holding patients for days because we can’t get them transferred, can’t get beds for them.
Posted: Dec 23, 2020 8:05 AM
Posted By: Mike Bunge
LOS ANGELES (AP) California s health care system is buckling under the strain of the nation s largest coronavirus outbreak and may fracture in weeks if people ignore holiday social distancing, health officials warned as the number of people needing beds and specialized care soared to previously unimagined levels.
The officials blamed Thanksgiving transmissions they fear will be repeated if people gather for Christmas and New Year’s and don’t take precautions like wearing masks, socially distancing, staying home as much as possible and not socializing with others.
“We are really making a clarion and desperate call to Californians to not repeat what happened at Thanksgiving,” said Dr. Stephen Parodi, The Permanente Medical Group’s associate executive director. “Our hospital systems cannot afford to see another increase like we saw with Thanksgiving.”
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly reiterated that the state’s modeling shows some hospitals and regions of the state will be overwhelmed in coming weeks if the current surge continues. But he said that’s not a given.
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California’s health care system is in the throes of a coronavirus crisis stemming from ill-advised Thanksgiving gatherings, top executives from the state’s largest hospital systems said Tuesday as they put out a “desperate call” for residents to avoid a Christmas repeat they said would overwhelm the state’s medical system.
Increasingly exhausted staff, many pressed into service outside their normal duties, are now attending to virus patients stacked up in hallways and conference rooms, said officials from Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health and Sutter Health, which together cover 15 million Californians.
The CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, Dr. Elaine Batchlor, separately said patients there have spilled over into the gift shop and five tents outside the emergency department.