The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency told EMS employees Monday to only administer supplemental oxygen if a patient s saturation levels dip below 90% to conserve depleting oxygen supplies. Paramedics were also told not to transport adult heart attack patients to the hospital unless they can restore spontaneous circulation on site to focus care on patients who are more likely to survive.
Los Angeles is facing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus patients that is pushing area hospitals to the brink. Public health officials warn the already dire situation is projected to worsen in January. Many hospitals have reached a point of crisis and are having to make very tough decisions about patient care, Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county s director of health services, said at a press briefing Monday. She urged residents to avoid the emergency room unless they re in need of serious medical attention.
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Jan 03, 2021 06:30 AM EST
University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles County, chief medical officer Dr. Brad Spellberg said in an interview, If you are in a car accident, you re going to want us to save your life. If you have a stroke or a heart attack, you re going to need an ICU bed and with trained ICU nurses and physicians who are not caring for 20 other patients at the same time.
That means record-high Covid-19 hospitalizations could have an overwhelming effect even if you don t have it. Months ago, across the US, some hospitals started running out of health care workers. And fueling new waves of Covid-19 hospitalizations are holiday gatherings.
For more than a month, US hospitals have had more than 100,000 coronavirus patients every day kyma.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kyma.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
GRIM RISE
US sets single-day Covid record with 278k testing positive as CDC data suggests real death toll is 470k
Updated: 3 Jan 2021, 11:23
THE US has hit another grim milestone as it recorded almost 278,000 new Covid cases - the highest single day rise of the pandemic.
It come as new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data suggested the true coronavirus death toll may be almost 470,000.
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Doctors treat patients in a Covid ward in TexasCredit: Getty Images - Getty
America continues to suffer under from the virus as doctors warned the fight against Covid is literally World War Three .
The total number of US deaths in the pandemic has now topped 350,000 as 2,385 fatalities were recorded by the Covid Tracking Project.
US surgeon general defends Trump administration s vaccine rollout
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams this morning defended the Trump administration s failure to deliver on its goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020.
Adams told CNN s Jake Tapper that the federal government did deliver 20 million doses to the states as promised. I want people to understand that the projections we were putting out were based on what we could control at the federal level. And we did deliver on 20 million doses delivered, but you re always going to have more doses allocated versus delivered. Delivered versus shots in arms. I just want to be frank, he said.