By City News Service
Dec 29, 2020
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - With conference rooms, cafeterias and gift shops converted into medical-care spaces, Los Angeles County hospitals continued to be overrun with COVID-19 and other patients today, while deaths from the virus spiked sharply upward, nearing the 10,000-fatality mark.
And while it will take several weeks to determine if the Christmas holiday will lead to another surge in virus cases, health officials said the weekend images of crowded airports and freeways paint a dim picture that likely portend an even more horrific situation at hospitals.
“The situation is truly dire, county Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said, saying the county s hospitals are “inundated with COVID patients.
Published Tuesday, December 29, 2020 6:49AM EST (CNN) The number of patients hospitalized across the US with Covid-19 is the highest it s ever been and at this rate health experts warn they may have to ration nurses, respirators and care. When you run out of capacity, physicians and bioethicists in these hospitals will need to decide which patients are salvageable potentially salvageable and which patients aren t, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner explained. The US reported 121,235 patients hospitalized with coronavirus Monday, the highest it has been since the start of the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. ICU coronavirus patients have increased from 16% in September to 40% last week, and health experts anticipate holiday travel could mean a surge on top of a surge.
Dr Fauci on Tuesday predicted that the US coronavirus crisis will worsen significantly next month
He pinned his prediction in part on Americans failure to heed experts advice against travel and gatherings over Christmas
He declined to speculate how high the numbers will get but said: I hope we just don t get to that level of continually seeing over 800,000 [daily cases]
CDC projections suggest that the U.S. COVID-19 death toll will be well over 400,000 by January 20, when Trump will leave office
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 337,000 Americans had died of COVID-19 and more than 19.4 million people had been infected
Southern California will remain under a stay-at-home order for the foreseeable future, state officials said Tuesday, meaning the region will enter 2021 with significant restrictions on its struggling economy as hundreds of Californians die every day and hospitals face unprecedented pressures from a flood of COVID-19 patients.
While not unexpected, Tuesday’s extension of the stay-at-home order for both Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley is yet another cold splash of reality that the pandemic will upend life into the new year, despite the promise of the new vaccines.
Restrictions on businesses, especially the ban on outdoor restaurant dining, were increasingly unpopular among some as the pandemic dragged into its third wave, before the severity of the hospital crisis became clear.
By City News Service
Dec 29, 2020
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles and public health startup Curative, is leading a deployment effort to get the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine to 339 Skilled Nursing Facilities in Los Angeles County by the end of 2020, and 59 facilities have already received it as of today.
Nursing facilities account for 5% of California s COVID-19 cases but 35% of its deaths, according to officials with the Los Angeles County Joint Information Center.
“Skilled Nursing Facilities have been hit hard by COVID-19, accounting for close to 3,000 deaths, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.