As the first dose of the Covit-19 vaccine was delivered to a Los Angeles area hospital, the county hospital and ICU capacity was dangerously low.
According to Dr. Christina Callie, director of LA County Health and Human Services, there are only 370 hospital beds per 10 million counties. ICU availability was even worse, with only 56-year-old ICU beds. This is the second time availability has dropped below 100, he said.
Orange County on Monday set new records for new coronavirus diagnoses – 3,250 – and the county’s adjusted intensive care unit capacity reached zero. Although that capacity was around 11% over the weekend, it has apparently fallen. The adjusted rate filters the capacity like NICU beds for babies. In comparison, Orange County’s daily positive case count was 1,056 on Nov. 29, so the daily count has risen more than 200% in just 2 weeks.
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According to state statistics, Southern California had only 2.7% of its ICU bed capacity remaining on Monday.
Los Angeles County reported 7,344 new cases Monday. LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the number of new processes is artificially low and there has been a delay in reporting weekend test results from one of the largest processing labs. He says Lake will see an unusually high number of new cases on Tuesday. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, cases in Los Angeles County increased by 625%, Ferrer said. Also, the number of cases has increased in the last week.
The county has 4,203 people hospitalized with COVID, and nearly half of the county’s ICU beds are now occupied by COVID patients. According to Ferrer, 5,000 people will be hospitalized with COVID-19 over the weekend.
COVID-19 Daily Update:
December 14, 2020
New cases: 7,344 (532,730 to date)
New deaths: 48 (8,345 to date)
Current hospitals: 4,203 pic.twitter.com/BEosrV3xcL– LA Public Health (Public Health) December 14, 2020
Galle noted that the county is now able to add 13% more ICU beds compared to the summer peak. But, he said, “That life is not infinite. We cannot maintain this increase rate. We physically exclude ourselves. “
He said the cancellation of selected procedures was a way for hospitals to accommodate Gov. Spike. “Hospitals have begun to some extent to prevent unnecessary activities,” he said.
Another method of regulating bed capacity is “diversion” in which the ambulance is diverted to a hospital – perhaps far away – with more beds. “There are some hospitals in the county that we know may have an offload time of more than four hours,” Ferrer said. “That’s why we need a diversion system.”
The next step for local hospitals would be to “break the ratio” or implement group-based nursing, Galle said. The government dictates nurse-to-patient rates, but can reduce the number of nurses per patient in emergency situations.
Galle said the government has provided two separate discount processes. LA County Hospitals have not yet broken rates. But, according to Galle, many local hospitals have already applied and are getting discounts if staff have to use them.
Galle warned that physician rates for the patient were “important and breaking them would lead to sub-optimal outcomes.”
The city news service contributed to this report.