As COVID-19 cases continue to surge, ambulance crews in Los Angeles County have been informed not to transport patients who have little chance of survival.
In just over a month, new infections in the county have soared from about 400,000 cases on Nov. 30 to more than 800,000 cases on Jan. 2, CNN noted.
Hospitals in the county are now overwhelmed with more than 7,600 patients and intensive care units are filled to capacity.
A person is dying of the virus every 15 minutes, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said.
As a result, officials have advised ambulance crews to cut back on their use of oxygen and not to bring to hospitals those who have virtually no chance of surviving, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Patients whose hearts have stopped despite resuscitation should no longer be transported to hospitals, the county’s EMS agency informed ambulance crews, CNN reported.
The situation is Los Angeles County is expected to grow even more dire in the coming weeks as patients who became infected over Christmas will need treatment.
Even now, ambulances are being forced to wait in bays before they can bring patients into hospitals. In some cases, doctors are treating the patients inside the ambulances.
"The increases in cases are likely to continue for weeks to come as a result of holiday and New Year's Eve parties and returning travelers," Ferrer said. "We're likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we've faced the entire pandemic, and that's hard to imagine."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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