Ambulance workers in Los Angeles County have been told not to transport patients with “little chance of survival” to local hospitals because intensive care units are overwhelmed by COVID patients.
The directive from the Los Angeles Emergency Medical Services Agency, obtained by CNN, also tells ambulance workers to “keep using oxygen.”
In Los Angeles, many intensive care units are at capacity, as a disastrous wave of the virus grows in southern California.
According to county data, more than 6,000 patients are currently being treated for coronavirus in Los Angeles. The hospital beds available at most ICUs were virtually non-existent.
Because of these factors, EMS workers were told to “perform resuscitation for at least 20 minutes” if the patient’s heart stopped instead of taking them to the hospital.
In addition, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday formed a working group to “evaluate and modernize outdated oxygen delivery systems” at six hospitals in Los Angeles.