California Thursday became the third state that exceeds 25,000 deaths through COVID, following New York and Texas. In Los Angeles County, many funeral homes are full to the brim, and health professionals feel as if they are under siege.
Hospitals in Southern California are on the verge of breaking down, with 1 in 5 COVID-19 tests coming back positive.
“It’s just total chaos,” said nurse Tavonia Ekwegh, who leads ER at Anaheim Global Medical Center. The tents outside the medical center are filling up.
“It’s a war zone, we have the ambulance running after the ambulance,” Ekwegh said.
Hospitalizations are set to double in January. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti put it bluntly: “The simple answer” is that LA hospitals can’t handle twice as many patients.
“People will die in the halls of our hospitals,” Garcetti said. “Our behavior will dictate whether people live or die as much as any action taken by the hospital.”
He sends extra patrols to close the New Year’s Eve parties. He estimated that “probably over 1,000 officers will take to the streets.
His message to the people of the city is to be “lifeguards, not killers.”
“When 95% of people do the right thing, it’s still dangerous, let alone when 80% of the people do the right thing, and it’s disastrous,” Garcetti said.
And for Garcetti, the pandemic is now personal.
“Our daughter. She did a fast food race and a shopping round,” Garcetti said. “He received a positive COVID-19 test. We did everything right and yet he came to our house.”
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