Ambulances were alerted as hospitals in Los Angeles were flooded with COVID-19 patients

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles health officials have told first responders not to bring in resuscitated adult patients to hospitals, citing a shortage of beds and staff as the latest COVID-19 increase has threatened to overwhelm systems. healthcare in America’s second largest city.

The order, issued late Monday and coming into force immediately, marked an escalation of measures taken by state and local officials at the national level in the face of alarming increases in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

Ambulances were forced to wait several hours to unload patients at some hospitals in Los Angeles, causing delays in the county’s emergency response system.

“Patients in fully traumatic detention who meet the current Ref 814 criteria for determining death will not be resuscitated and will be determined dead on the spot and will not be transported,” said Marianne Gausche-Hill, medical director of the Emergency Medical Services Agency in Los Angeles. in the directive.

Ref. 814 refers to the county’s policy on determining and pronouncing the death of a patient who was not transported to a hospital.

California, the most populous state in the United States, has been particularly hard hit by the latest wave of coronavirus, which some public health officials attribute to Thanksgiving gatherings in November. Los Angeles is one of two counties in California that reports a lack of intensive care unit beds.

California reported 72,911 cases of COVID-19 months, a one-day record since the beginning of the pandemic.

HOLIDAYS FOR WAGONS

More than 20.8 million people have been infected with the virus in the United States since March, and the death toll is 355.00. A record 129,000 COVID-19 patients have been in hospitals since Tuesday.

The worsening situation has increased pressure on local and state officials to speed up the distribution of the two coronavirus vaccines approved so far for emergency use.

Federal health officials said Monday that more than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines manufactured by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. and shipped to the United States have not yet been administered.

But some health workers have started receiving their second vaccine with the Pfizer vaccine this week. Both vaccines require two doses every three to four weeks.

Governors in New York and Florida have said they will penalize hospitals that fail to distribute fire quickly.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference Tuesday. “If a hospital has made all its health workers, well, we’ll take that supply back and go to the essential workers.”

Another 3 million doses of the two vaccines were sent to the United States on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in a statement, bringing the total to more than 19 million in 21 days.

The US government is considering halving the doses of the Modern vaccine to free up supplies for more vaccinations. But scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna said Tuesday it could take two months to study whether halved doses would be effective. [nL1N2JG2A4}