It’s a question our readers started asking once the severity of the present COVID-19 surge became clear: Where is the massive military hospital ship that docked in the Port of Los Angeles last spring so it could relieve local medical centers?
That naval ship, the USNS Mercy, is currently dry-docked in Portland, undergoing heavy maintenance for at least the next several months. In fact, the Mercy sailed to Portland only weeks after it steamed away from Los Angeles in May, its nearly 1,000 hospital beds having gone largely unused during the initial pandemic wave, which pales in comparison to Southern California’s current crisis.
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As President Donald Trump s days in office wind down, there s a lot of numbers that illustrate exactly how he is leaving the White House. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
DRIVING THE DAY
Before we get down to business, Sergio Gor took his Instagram followers inside the gilded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago for its New Year’s Eve dance party, and gave them a peek of the Covid denial that’s defining the last throes of
By PAUL THORNTON | Los Angeles Times | Published: January 2, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. (Tribune News Service) It s a question Los Angeles Times readers started asking once the severity of the present COVID-19 surge became clear: Where is the massive military hospital ship that docked in the Port of Los Angeles last spring so it could relieve local medical centers? That naval ship, the USNS Mercy, is currently dry-docked in Portland, undergoing heavy maintenance for at least the next several months. In fact, the Mercy sailed to Portland only weeks after it steamed away from Los Angeles in May, its nearly 1,000 hospital beds having gone largely unused during the initial pandemic wave, which pales in comparison to Southern California s current crisis.
It s just utter chaos : California becomes third state to surpass 25,000 COVID-19 deaths
California on Thursday became the third state to surpass 25,000 COVID deaths, following New York and Texas. In Los Angeles County, many funeral homes are filled to capacity, and health care professionals feel as if they re under siege.
Hospitals in Southern California are at the breaking point with 1 in 5 COVID-19 tests coming back positive. It s just utter chaos, said nurse Tavonia Ekwegh, who runs the ER at Anaheim Global Medical Center. Tents outside the medical center are filling up. It is a war zone, we have ambulance run after ambulance run, Ekwegh said.