The nightmare of a family virus reflects the deepening US crisis

First, Theresa Pirozzi’s father, 85, fell ill and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. Days later, her mother was so weak that she could barely walk. Now, instead of preparing for Christmas, Pirozzi is looking forward to updates from the hospital, where both parents are on intensive care with the coronavirus.



In this undated photo provided by Theresa Pirozzi, she shows her parents, Jerry and Shirley Pirozzi, an 85-year-old couple from Southern California, who have been together for 57 years, in Oak Park, California.  They are both in the same hospital as COVID -19 and had to wait a few days to get a bed.  Across California, nearly 17,000 people have been hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections, more than double the previous peak reached in July 2020. (Theresa Pirozzi via AP)


© Provided by the Associated Press
In this undated photo provided by Theresa Pirozzi, she shows her parents, Jerry and Shirley Pirozzi, an 85-year-old couple from Southern California, who have been together for 57 years, in Oak Park, California. They are both in the same hospital as COVID -19 and had to wait a few days to get a bed. Across California, nearly 17,000 people have been hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections, more than double the previous peak reached in July 2020. (Theresa Pirozzi via AP)

“I do not put decorations here. It’s just not good right now, “Pirozzi said of her parents’ home in Oak Park, California.” I’m physically ill with anxiety. ”

The couple is emblematic of the deepening crisis at an alarming rate in California, where hospitals are stretched to their limits as the virus explodes across the state. Nearly 17,000 people have been hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections since Friday, and a state model that uses current data to predict future trends shows that the number could reach 75,000 incomprehensibly by mid-January.



Shoppers wear face masks as they walk down Regent Street ahead of the new Tier-4 restraints in London on Saturday, December 19, 2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Christmas gatherings can't go on and non-essential stores it must close in London and much of the south of England, when it imposed a new higher level of coronavirus restrictions to reduce rapidly spreading infections.  (Photo AP / Alberto Pezzali)


© Provided by the Associated Press
Shoppers wear face masks as they walk down Regent Street ahead of the new Tier-4 restraints in London on Saturday, December 19, 2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Christmas gatherings can’t go on and non-essential stores has to close in London and much of the south of England, when it imposed a new higher level of coronavirus restrictions to reduce rapidly spreading infections (Photo AP / Alberto Pezzali)

With more than 48,000 new cases in California, the United States as a whole added a record 249,709 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day, Johns Hopkins University reported Saturday. The death toll now stands at over 315,000.

Texas, Florida, New York and Tennessee have registered more than 10,400 new cases each. In the last two weeks, the seven-day average for new cases in the US has risen to 219,324 daily from 183,787, an increase of almost 20%.

Cases were on the rise before Thanksgiving, and holiday gatherings sent them even further. Health officials now fear that growth will only worsen by Christmas and New Year. In many places, say health officials, people tired of wearing face masks and staying away from others simply ignore the suggested precautions.



FILE - This November 13, 2020, the photo of the file of Army General Gustave Perna, who leads Operation Warp Speed, speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington.  The army general in charge of administering COVID-19 vaccines in the United States apologized on Saturday, December 19, for


© Provided by the Associated Press
FILE – This November 13, 2020, the photo of the file of Army General Gustave Perna, who leads Operation Warp Speed, speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington. The army general in charge of administering COVID-19 vaccines in the United States apologized on Saturday, December 19, for “mis-communication” with states on the number of doses to be administered in the early stages of distribution. “I failed. I adjust. I fixate and we will move on from there,” Perna told reporters in a telephone briefing. (Photo by AP / Evan Vucci, file)

While federal regulators have approved two vaccines to fight the disease and doses have already been given to thousands of people, mostly health workers, large-scale vaccinations for the general public are not expected until spring.

Several states have said the federal government has told them that next week’s delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be lower than initially expected. The army general in charge of removing COVID-19 vaccines in the US apologized on Saturday for “mis-communication” with states about the number of doses to be administered in the early stages of distribution.

Of the more than 272,000 photos of the Pfizer vaccine that have been administered since Saturday morning, US health officials said they have seen six cases of severe allergic reactions. One in half a dozen people had a history of vaccination reactions, they said.

In a possible complication, England’s medical director Chris Whitty said on Saturday that Britain had informed the World Health Organization that officials believed a new variant of the coronavirus could spread faster. The British Secretary of Health said this week that the new option would be linked to the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in the south and south-east of England.



FILE - On December 16, 2020, file photo, Jessica Daniels, right, immunization program coordinator for Legacy Emanuel, Kelley Callais, first swellings after Callais was given COVID-19 vaccine at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, Ore.  Oregon officials learned early in the pandemic that they need to look locally for connections to help them get fewer and fewer personal protective equipment.  (Dave Killen / The Oregonian via AP)


© Provided by the Associated Press
FILE – On this December 16, 2020, file photo, Jessica Daniels, right, immunization program coordinator for Legacy Emanuel, Kelley Callais, the first cotton, after Callais administered his COVID-19 vaccine at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, Ore. Oregon officials learned early in the pandemic that they need to look locally for connections to help them get fewer and fewer personal protective equipment. (Dave Killen / The Oregonian via AP)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed stricter restrictions on the region on Saturday, meaning millions must cancel their Christmas meetings and most shops must close in London before the holiday. New, but less stringent, restrictions have been imposed on the US capital, with indoor dining in restaurants being banned from next week until mid-January.

In California, hospitals across the country are shrinking, and the morgue is running out. Hospitals are left without beds for intensive care units, and patients are cared for in several outpatient settings. In some places, the sick are sent to tents and ambulances make backup copies outside the emergency rooms because there is no place to put the patients.

When Pirozzi’s father, Jerry, arrived at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousands Oaks, he was so full of patients that he had to spend two days in the emergency room before opening an intensive care unit, Pirozzi said. She continued to call the hospital, but emergency nurses told her they had no rooms, she said.

“I’m sure it was very difficult for him, to be confused, not to be able to breathe, to be alone,” Pirozzi said. “I do everything I can, but I’m completely stressed and overworked.”

Her mother, Shirley, was taken to the same hospital four days later and moved to a separate room, she said. Pirozzi said her family did not tell Jerry that his wife, over 57, was also hospitalized; she fears it will only make it worse.

“I want it to be a little stronger so it doesn’t roll back,” she said. “Because I know that all he cares about is his bride.”

Pirozzi said both parents had panic attacks. Since family members cannot visit, she delivered notes written in a plastic bag that she asked the nurses to read.

She begged the public to take the virus seriously.

“I would not want this for my worst enemy, having both come down within five or seven days of each other,” she said. “Do everything you can to protect yourself, because you don’t want that to happen to you.”

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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Jay Reeves of Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to the report.

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Follow the AP pandemic coverage: http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

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