California Thursday became the third state in exceed 25,000 deaths by COVID, following New York and Texas. In Los Angeles County, many funeral homes are full and health professionals feel like they are being harassed.
Hospitals in Southern California are at the breaking point with 1 in 5 COVID-19 tests coming back positive.
“It’s just absolute chaos,” said nurse Tavonia Ekwegh, who heads the emergency department at Anaheim Global Medical Center. The tents outside the medical center fill up.
“It’s a war zone, we have ambulances running after ambulance,” Ekwegh said.
Hospitalizations are on track to double in January. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti put it bluntly: The “simple answer” is that Los Angeles hospitals can’t treat twice as many patients.
“People will die in the corridors of our hospitals,” Garcetti said. “Our behavior will determine whether people live or die as much as any action the hospital takes.”
Send additional patrols to close the New Year holidays. He estimated that “probably more than 1,000” agents will take to the streets.
His message to city residents is to “save lives, don’t be murderers.”
“When 95% of people do the right thing, it’s still dangerous, let alone when 80% of people do the right thing, and it’s disastrous,” Garcetti said.
And for Garcetti, the the pandemic is now personal.
“Our own daughter. She did a fast food run and a grocery store,” Garcetti said. “He got a positive COVID-19 test. We did everything right and yet he got to our house.”
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