Orange County set another record for COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday, with officials also reporting another 4,406 coronavirus cases and two additional deaths.
Health officials and emergency workers painted a dire picture of the situation inside Long Beach hospitals today, as ambulances struggled to keep up with a crush of patients and the city activated a “mass fatality” plan to back up local morgues that are nearing capacity even as more critically ill patients flood local medical centers.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
“The COVID crisis in Long Beach is not getting better; it’s getting worse,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in a news conference Wednesday. “We have to just recognize that we are living through the biggest challenge we have ever faced as a community and a city.”
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Funeral directors are also being inundated, according to Bob Achermann, executive director of California Funeral Directors Association.
“I think everyone is just pedaling as fast as they can,” he said. “I don’t think anybody expected for it to get like this.”
An update from the city manager’s office Tuesday said specifically that the morgues at Los Alamitos Medical Center and College Hospital were “experiencing difficulty” and received extra refrigerated units.
As intensive care units edge dangerously close to capacity, the city has deployed its mobile hospitals to Long Beach Memorial and College Hospital to provide additional space, and “our wait time for ambulances at hospitals has increased significantly,” the city manager’s office said.
Orange County s Hospitals Brace For More Patients As ICUs Fill yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.