The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals increased to 7,613, the highest number observed during the pandemic, with 21% of those people in intensive care units.
Conditions continue to worsen at county hospitals, with ambulances waiting up to eight hours to unload patients, leading to a shortage of paramedic crews on the streets and response times of more than 911.
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Amid the disaster, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is sending experts to help oxygen delivery systems to six of the county’s oldest hospitals, state officials said Friday.
“The current increase in patients … is a kind of hidden disaster,” Cathy Chidester, director of the county’s emergency medical agency, said earlier this week. “It’s not a fire. It’s not an earthquake. It’s not a train wreck that’s right in front of the public and they can see what’s going on and avoid that area. It’s all happening behind the doors of households and hospitals. So no one it’s really, the general public doesn’t really see what’s going on. “
Chidester said there are reports of hospitals being so overwhelmed that ambulances wait seven or eight hours in emergency rooms, forcing patients to be treated in an ambulance. But more importantly, the delay is keeping ambulances out of service, leaving them unable to respond to additional emergency medical calls, she said.
“We are running out of ambulances, and our response to 911 calls is getting longer and longer,” Chidester said.
She said in the Valley of the Antelopes, the county uses ambulances and ambulance companies “which are not traditionally 911 ambulances” just to keep up with the demand.
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The Army Corps of Engineers team will evaluate oxygen systems at the following county hospitals: Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital, Los Angeles; Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital, West Covina; Mission Community Hospital, Panorama City; Beverly Community Hospital, Montebello; Lakewood Regional Medical Center, Lakewood; PIH Health Hospital, Downey.
“By working to improve the oxygen delivery systems at these older hospitals, we can improve the ability to provide life-sustaining care to those who need it,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Dr. Christina Ghaly, the director of health services in the county, said that the pipes of some hospitals cannot maintain enough pressure and could even freeze.
Military experts will monitor any improvements deemed necessary at the affected hospitals.
LA County has launched a New Year’s campaign # Every10Minutes on Twitter, highlighting the deadly number of the pandemic.
A tweet every 10 minutes honors someone who died of COVID-19.
The campaign is taking place because many people have ignored requests to stay home on New Year’s Eve with a series of public gatherings in Southern California.
Few wore masks in Point Mugu, where actor Kirk Cameron hosted another unmasked gathering on Thursday, with groups of people seen on the beach for a faith-based event.
ABOUT: Kirk Cameron hosts New Year’s Eve meeting at Point Mugu, despite warnings from public health officials
It was a similar scene in Valencia, where hundreds packed a parking lot to ring in the new year. Few who attended the open-air concert hosted by Christian activist Sean Feucht at Higher Vision Church wore masks or were physically distant.
Car enthusiasts gathered in Pasadena for their annual New Year’s Eve Rose Parade cruise, even though the world-famous show was canceled.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department task force raided five county’s “super-New Year’s Eve” parties, making more than 90 arrests and removing seven handguns from the streets, officials said Friday.
Incursions included one in Hawthorne, two in Los Angeles, one in Malibu and one in Pomona, LASD Sgt. Said Bob Boese. The attacked locations included rented houses, vacant warehouses, hotels and closed businesses.
In total, 90 adults were arrested and summoned for violations of the “Safer at Home” order in the county to stop the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, Boese continued. One person was arrested for alleged possession of narcotics and a loaded firearm. More than 900 people have been warned and advised on updating the safer home order. Deputies recovered five handguns from the Hawthorne event, officials said.
“We have clarified that we will seek and take law enforcement action against all super-widespread events that take place anywhere in Los Angeles County,” said Sheriff Alex Villanueva. “The purpose of these law enforcement actions is to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the risk to our vulnerable populations. “
IN CONNECTION: LA County reminds people to stay home in a strong Twitter campaign
The latest figures from the county showed a total of 773 available and staffed hospital beds, including only 57 adult beds. These numbers change rapidly throughout the day.
As hospitalizations increased, deaths rose, and the county reported a record 290 deaths on Thursday – although some of those deaths were attributed to reporting arrears dating back to the Christmas weekend. The director of public health of the county, Barbara Ferrer, mentioned that 86% of the people who died due to COVID-19 in the county had underlying health conditions, decreasing from more than 90% in the first days of the pandemic.
This decrease “indicates that, in fact, there are more people than ever, who not only pass, but pass without any underlying health condition.”
Nearly 4,737,000 people have been tested since Friday, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, with 16 percent of people tested positive.
The coronavirus tax in the county now stands at 790,582 cases and 10,552 deaths.
“These trends will continue until January and, if we do nothing, certainly beyond,” Ferrer said.
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City News Service contributed to this report.
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