LOS ANGELES (AP) – California health authorities on Saturday reported a record one-day record of 695 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals are strained under unprecedented workloads.
The death toll in California since the start of the pandemic has risen to 29,233, according to the State Department of Public Health website.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations are nearly 22,000 and state models predict the number could reach 30,000 by February 1st.
An increase in cases after Halloween and Thanksgiving produced record hospitalizations in California, and now the most severely ill of these patients die in unprecedented numbers.
There are already many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas struggling to keep up and warned that care may need to be rationed as intensive care beds dwindle.
All beds in the intensive care unit of St. Louis Regional Medical Center John’s in Oxnard is full and emergency rooms are full in Ventura County, about 97 miles northwest of Los Angeles..
When a blue code rings in the hospital indicating a cardiac arrest, nurse Yesenia Avila makes a small prayer.
Codes have come often. In a specific turn, he said three patients with COVID-19 died within an hour.
“We had never seen so much death,” Avila told the newspaper. “I’ve been in healthcare for 22 years and I’ve never been scared. Right now … I’m afraid for my children. “
The biggest fear is that hospitals will be treated for rationing in a few weeks when people who ignored the rules of social distancing to meet with friends and family for Christmas and New Year begin to seek medical attention.
The post-Christmas rise worsens in Los Angeles County, where figures released Thursday and Friday show a new daily load of nearly 20,000, significantly above the average of about 14,000 new cases a day over the past week. In total, 100.00 new cases were registered this week.
With new figures released Saturday, the county surpassed the 12,000 deaths caused by COVID-19; 1,000 of which occurred in the last four days.
“The speed with which we are reaching serious death and case milestones for COVID-19 is a devastating reflection of the immense spread that is taking place across the county,” said Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health. . “And this accelerated spread reflects the many insecure actions people took during the holidays.”
Dr. Paul Simon, scientific head of the county Department of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times expects the number of hospitalizations and deaths to remain high throughout January due to what happened during the holidays.
“We will see high levels of hospitalization and, unfortunately, deaths for at least the next two or four weeks.”
Los Angeles County has a quarter of the state’s population, but accounts for approximately 40% of COVID-19 deaths.