Los Angeles Hospitals at a Tipping Point

January 08, 2021

It seems like the news of the vaccine rollout has made everyone relax and let their guard down. KTLA recently published an article titled, "Coronavirus Spreading Within Households in L.A. Area, Mayor Garcetti Says," that states that the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse in Los Angeles, and the nation's most populous county is recording a new COVID-19 case every six seconds. On January 3rd, L.A. Public Health reported 91 new deaths and 12,488 new positive cases of the coronavirus.

Although Los Angeles County is seeing the compliance of mask-wearing and people abiding stay at home orders, the state reports enormous amounts of new cases, including more than 12,000 in the county on Sunday, as mentioned above. "This is a virus that preys off our weakness, preys off of our exhaustion," says L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. In a statement, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said that this is the fastest acceleration of new cases than any other time since the pandemic started. According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, California is now the third state exceeding 25,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, behind New York with 38,000 and Texas with 27,000.

With the increasing rise of coronavirus cases, hospitals are swamped with patients, and intensive care units don't have any more beds. Ambulances are forced to wait outside for as long as eight hours before they can transfer patients inside, and, in some instances, doctors would treat the patients inside the ambulances. Furthermore, refrigerated trucks are on standby, ready to store the dead, while mortuaries turn away families as they are running out of space. For more information on the article, make sure you click here: Coronavirus Spreading Within Households in L.A. Area, Mayor Garcetti Says.