Coronavirus pandemic
Updated
Published
December 16, 2020 6:08 PM
Dr. José Mayorga, Executive Director in family medicine at UCI Medical Center, receives a COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, the first day shots were available in Orange County. (Chava Sanchez/LAist
Orange County health officials today reported 1,486 patients are hospitalized in the county with COVID-19. That includes 319 ICU patients, a startling increase of more than 100 people in just one day.
Both are new records.
Officials blame the recent surge on gatherings where people are not wearing face coverings.
And that prompted this emotional plea from county health director Dr. Clayton Chau at this week s board of supervisors meeting: Stay home.
Coronavirus pandemic
Updated
Published
December 16, 2020 6:08 PM
Dr. José Mayorga, Executive Director in family medicine at UCI Medical Center, receives a COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, the first day shots were available in Orange County. (Chava Sanchez/LAist
Orange County health officials today reported 1,486 patients are hospitalized in the county with COVID-19. That includes 319 ICU patients, a startling increase of more than 100 people in just one day.
Both are new records.
Officials blame the recent surge on gatherings where people are not wearing face coverings.
And that prompted this emotional plea from county health director Dr. Clayton Chau at this week s board of supervisors meeting: Stay home.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
L.A. County has fewer than 100 ICU beds available, with worst still coming, officials say [Los Angeles Times]
Intensive care unit beds across Southern California are plummeting to critical levels, with capacity falling to 1% in Ventura County and 0% in Riverside County while Los Angeles County home to 10 million people had fewer than 100 beds available.
But the worst of the surge is still to come, experts say. L.A. County has more than 4,400 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and officials said that number could rise to 5,000 by the weekend.
The shortages come as the coronavirus continues to rage across the state. A Los Angeles Times county-by-county tally showed an unprecedented 42,129 cases reported Monday. That number breaks the single-day record set Dec. 8, when 35,400 coronavirus cases were recorded.
US officials report 3,500 new Covid-19 deaths, a daily record for the coronavirus pandemic
Wednesday brought more bad and good news as the US endures the 10th month of the.
Posted: Dec 16, 2020 8:47 AM
Updated: Dec 17, 2020 12:45 AM
Posted By: CNN
Wednesday brought more bad and good news as the US endures the 10th month of the coronavirus pandemic.
There was a trio of all-time highs in the data. A record number of new deaths more than 3,500 was reported Wednesday and there were more than 240,000 newly reported coronavirus cases. And the number of people in hospitals was at a high for the 11th day in a row.
But Ghaly painted a dire picture of the situation at the county s 70 “911-receiving” hospitals, which have emergency departments and wind up treating COVID-19 patients. Last week, an average of 35%, or 874, of all patients in hospitals available ICU beds were COVID-19 patients, while 27%, or 2,681, of patients in standard hospital beds were being treated for the coronavirus.
“Those numbers are absolutely astounding,” she said.
On Sunday, a day when emergency departments are traditionally not as busy, 81% of the 911-receiving hospitals asked to have advanced-life-support ambulance traffic diverted to other medical facilities at some point during the day due to overcrowded ERs. Ghaly said last week the traditional average of hospitals requesting diversion this time of year is 10% to 15%.