Virus surge puts California hospitals on the brink

A Southern California hospital executive said the COVID-19 situation at her facility was approaching a crisis compared with the summer, which she called "a bit of a walk in the park".

In an update on Monday to the Pasadena City Council, Lori Morgan, president and CEO of Huntington Hospital, painted a grim picture of rising novel coronavirus infections in the area.

"We spent quite a bit of time talking to each other through the summer when we had such a large number of COVID patients, and now last summer starts to look like it was a bit of a walk in the park," she said.

The 619-bed hospital reported more than 200 COVID-19 patients, 27 of whom were fighting for their lives in the intensive-care unit on Monday, Morgan said. The facility was using 51 of its 75 available ventilators for COVID and non-COVID patients.

The state recorded 40,282 new cases on Wednesday, putting the total at more than 2.83 million, with more than 31,600 deaths, according to a tally kept by the Los Angeles Times.

Many California hospitals are on the brink of implementing crisis-care guidelines as a post-holiday spike of cases continues to push the state's healthcare system to the limit.

Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous county, is likely to hit 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases by the end of this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Huntington Hospital's leaders informed patients of the tough decisions its medical teams will have to make if resources continue to run scarce amid the soaring infection rate.

A team including doctors, a community member, a bioethics designee and a spiritual care provider will review the cases of all patients who are critically ill and allocate resources "based on the best medical information possible", the hospital said on its website.

"We are not at a point where we have invoked our scarce-resources policy. Quite frankly, I still pray every night that we won't have to do that," Morgan said.

Difficult situation

The 600-bed Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center (LAC+ USC) said in an emailed statement the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent surge have put all hospitals in Los Angeles County, including LAC+ USC Medical Center, in a very difficult situation.

"We still have beds available, but we do not have enough trained staff and are relying on support from the state of California and the Department of Defense," the hospital added.

Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland, California-based hospital chain, said it is monitoring each area it serves, including Southern California, and has increased treatment space and supplies "to meet the evolving demands of the pandemic".

"And, though we expanded inpatient capacity early in the pandemic, the current surge has required us to add even more space in our Emergency Departments and ICU areas," said the statement sent to China Daily.

On Wednesday, California made another 4 million people eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, intensifying a competition among the state's biggest counties as they race to acquire enough doses to inoculate their populations while the state endures another surge in new cases and deaths.

State public health officials followed federal guidance by announcing that people 65 and older could now get the vaccine, joining the already eligible next tier of emergency workers, teachers, child care providers and food and agriculture workers.

Officials the same day opened a vaccination site at Disneyland, boasting that it could eventually inoculate up to 7,000 people per day.

Agencies contributed to this story.