California is at the breaking point: COVID-19 patients in ambulances are waiting EIGHT HOURS before entering ERs as ICUs run out of capacity and hard-hit LA County probes whether the new, more contagious strain is spreading locally
- California officials plead with public to stay home on Christmas amid viral surge
- Most of state is under stay-at-home order with COVID-19 deaths nearing 24,000
- On Christmas Eve, California became first state to reach 2 million cases
- Health officials said Thanksgiving gatherings fueled current COVID-19 surge
- Hospitals are overrun as officials said there are no more available ICU beds
- Largest concentration of hospitalizations is in Southern California, officials said
- Los Angeles County is investigating if new COVID-19 strain is more contagious
Hospitals in Southern California are so overrun by COVID-19 cases that doctors are running low on supplies of oxygen, infected patients are forced to wait eight hours in ambulances before they can enter an emergency room, and intensive care units are fully booked with no more beds available.
The skyrocketing surge in COVID-19 cases is raising suspicions among public health officials in Los Angeles County that a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus is fueling the outbreak.
California's deadly Christmas was marked by pleas to avoid holiday gatherings outside the home and indoor church services in what could be a make-or-break effort to curb a coronavirus surge that already has filled some hospitals well beyond normal capacity.
Doctors say California is currently experiencing a 'viral tsunami' with COVID-19 cases surging by a staggering 68 percent in the past two weeks alone and ICU beds now at capacity in the southern part of the state.
California surpassed 2 million recorded cases of the deadly virus earlier this week, but experts predict that number will rapidly rise as residents gather to celebrate Christmas and New Year.
Mercy Air flight paramedic Bob (left) and flight nurse Zach (right) stand next to a patient inside the ED at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California on Tuesday
Hospitals throughout California are operating at beyond normal capacity due to a surge in coronavirus cases. The above image shows patients being treated inside a hallway at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Tuesday
Paramedics are seen above with a patient who is COVID-19 positive and who has suffered a stroke in Apple Valley, California, on Tuesday
Festive gatherings with friends and family might be tempting after a year that has seen the pandemic take nearly 24,000 lives and ravage the economy as much of the state remained under a stay-at-home order that has closed nonessential businesses.
But officials repeated warnings that Thanksgiving gatherings where people didn't wear masks or observe social distancing have resulted in a surge and begged people to forego Yule and New Year's festivities.
In Sonoma County in California's wine country, a Native American casino announced it was canceling a planned private New Year's Eve indoor event that could have drawn as many as 4,000 people.
The Graton Resort and Casino is on sovereign native land that isn't subject to state or county health orders, but it had come under scrutiny for the event.
Governor Gavin Newsom said hospitals are under 'unprecedented pressure' and if current trends continue the number of those hospitalized because of the virus could double in 30 days.
'We could have a surge on top of surge on top of a surge in January and February,' Newsom said in a social media video posting Thursday.
'I fear that but we're not victims to that if we change our behaviors.'
But many in the state are failing to heed his directive, and a new survey from hard-hit Los Angeles County indicates that a third of the area's 10 million residents are still gathering with people from outside their household.
'People have grown less sensitive to increasing case rates, less sensitive to the risk than at the start of the pandemic,' Kyla Thomas, a sociologist from the University of Southern California's Center for Social and Economic Research, told The Financial Times on Friday.
The result is a medical system at breaking point.
Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have mounted exponentially in recent weeks and are breaking new records.
On Christmas Eve, California became the first state in the nation to exceed 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.
On Friday, the state reported more than 39,000 new COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, a 2 per cent increase from the previous day but still far below the peak of more than 53,000 cases reported last week.
Nurses are seen above working in a makeshift emergency room erected under a tent for coronavirus patients at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center on Wednesday in Cotton, California
Dr. Mher Onanyan tends to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday
Nurses treat a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday
Southern California remains at zero percent of its ICU (Intensive Care Unit) bed capacity amid the spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Clinicians are seen above caring for a patient in the lobby of Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Wednesday
Registered nurse Katelyn Musslewhite cares for a COVID-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Wednesday
Juliet Babayan (right) waves goodbye to her sister Violet Bonyad (seated) and caregivers after bringing a present for Violet and visiting through a window at the Ararat Nursing Facility on Christmas Eve in Mission Hills, California
The 14-day daily average was below 40,000 cases.
There were 312 new deaths reported, a 1.3 per cent jump from the previous day but still well below last week's peak of 379.
However, the overall death rate has surged by more than 16 per cent over two weeks.
The first coronavirus case in California was confirmed on January 25.
It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on November 11. Just 44 days later, the number topped 2 million.
The crisis is straining the state´s medical system well beyond its normal capacity, prompting hospitals to treat patients in tents, offices and auditoriums.
As of Thursday, California had record numbers of COVID-19 patients in the hospital and in ICUs, at nearly 19,000 and nearly 4,000, respectively.
Friday figures showed no increase in hospitalizations and there were a few more ICU beds available, for a total of around 1,400 statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health.
However, ICU capacity varied between the five regions of the state.
The Northern California region had more than 36 per cent of ICU capacity while the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions were technically at 0 per cent capacity, meaning that they had no more regular ICU beds available.
Licensed vocational nurse Aaron Wu (right) gives physician support senior analyst Helen Silacci the first of two Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations at Seton Medical Center during the coronavirus pandemic in Daly City, California, on Thursday
Healthcare workers wait in line to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, on Thursday
Hard-hit hospitals were resorting to surge capacity by putting patients in areas not originally designated for the same level of care, such as post-operative recovery rooms.
'In most hospitals about half of all of the beds are filled with COVID patients and half of all the ICU beds are filled with COVID patients, and two-thirds of these patients are suffocating due to the inflammation that's in their lungs that´s caused by the virus,' said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
'They're suffocating to the point that they can no longer breathe on their own, and they have to have someone put a tube down their throat, in order to oxygenate their organs. Many of these people will not live to be in 2021,' she said Thursday.
Hospitals in LA County were diverting ambulances and leaving patients unattended for hours.
County health officials sent out a memo to doctors urging them not to send patients to emergency rooms unless it was absolutely necessary.
There is also a drastic shortage of nurses and other medical personnel, and California's leaders are reaching out to Australia and Taiwan to fill the need for 3,000 temporary healthcare workers.
Dr. Brian Gantwerker, who works in LA County, told the Financial Times he 'dreaded what the next several weeks would hold for Los Angeles.'
'It's a viral tsunami,' Robert Kim-Farley, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told The Financial Times.
Hospitals have also hired extra staff and canceled elective surgeries - all to boost capacity before the cases contracted over Christmas and New Year's show up in the next few weeks.
'We understand that people are tired, but public health measures are not the enemy - they are the road map for a faster and more sustainable recovery,' said a statement from the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, which includes 10 neighboring local health departments covering nearly 60 per cent of the state's population.
Los Angeles County, which has accounted for a third of all coronavirus cases and nearly 40 per cent of deaths, urged people to avoid attending indoor religious services, even though they are permitted with social distancing requirements.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles was permitting limited indoor services, although it also urged churches to avoid them in favor of outdoor or online services.
The above map shows how Southern California is home to the largest concentration of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized as of Friday
The above map shows that 55 of California's 58 counties are experiencing 'widespread' cases of COVID-19
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels held live streamed Christmas Masses where the priests wore face masks, choirs were replaced by a lone singer and no more than 130 people were permitted in an area that can seat 3,000.
Parishioners kept social distance even when taking communion, receiving it at arms' length from clergy members.
An officiating priest urged people 'never to lose hope, never to be discouraged' despite the pandemic.
Amid the dire warnings were some rays of hope, which the governor said may indicate people are heeding pleas to social distance.
A statistical model that state officials have been using to project hospitalizations predicts more than 71,000 patients in one month's time.
While still an unsustainable four times the current number of patients, the estimate is roughly 40,000 fewer than what the model had been projecting just days ago.
The transmission rate - the number of people that one infected person will infect - has been slowing for nearly two weeks, and it is nearing the point that would bring fewer infections from each person who contracts the virus.
Newsom urged Californians to celebrate the holidays safely.
'Let's virtually hug those outside of our immediate family,' he said.
'Let's stay close to those folks in our household.'
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