Overwhelming LA Hospital Prepares for Post-Christmas COVID Waves | Nation / World

It is difficult to know if people have followed a petition from a health expert and avoided a big Christmas gathering. However, passengers surged at Los Angeles International Airport, and some were seen as a bad sign.

“It’s getting worse and we haven’t even had a Christmas or New Year surge yet, so it feels like the number of people dying is skyrocketing because the hospital system is overwhelmed,” said a doctor in Los Angeles. .. The county hospital said.

Ali Mokudad, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, said the California incident was primarily caused by indoor rallies.

Holiday celebrations with multiple generations are especially dangerous, and young people who are likely to be asymptomatic can expose older, more vulnerable families. People tend to feel safer indoors and falsely feel reassured when they are around their family.

“These are your loved ones … you are likely to take off your mask and loosen your vigilance,” he said. Humans are misprogrammed to feel “indoors are safe. Indoors around friends and family are even safer.”

The next big test is whether there are a lot of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day gatherings.

Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles County, said in an interview last week that crowded shopping malls are also a major concern. The curfew in the state’s territories limits shopping malls to 20% of capacity, but it is clear that these limits are not being followed.

“The picture we’re looking at … is another small little disaster, so we’re going to take a closer look at the shopping mall this weekend,” Feller said. “Occupancy is expected to drop to 20%, but looking around, it looks much more crowded than 20%. This means a complete breakdown of what we need. To do.”

“We’ll have to look closely at what we’re seeing,” Feller said, with inspectors going out on the weekends after Christmas.

“It’s just a place where congestion is really completely unacceptable,” Ferrer said. “The only way we can open these malls is because there was no congestion. Therefore, if there is a lot of congestion, you really need to fix it right away. It can be fixed in shopping. More Responsible mall, or it may be fixed … by going ahead and seeing if we need to change [health] “But I think the right place to start is to get a good idea of ​​what’s going on,” Feller said.

Recently, a shopping mall has been attacked by the public health sector in LA County. County investigators will fine up to $ 500 for serious violations of COVID-19 precautions. At the mall, these include, among other safety measures, not banning eating and drinking, not promoting social distance in shared spaces, and not keeping occupancy below 20% of capacity. Glendale Galleria was quoted last week. Commerce Citadel Outlets have been quoted four times and Los Angeles Gloves have been quoted twice.

Authorities are most concerned about the situation at local hospitals.

The patient waits eight hours in the ambulance before entering the emergency room. In intensive care units with few or no beds available, health authorities are asking you to avoid the emergency room or call 911 for help, unless absolutely necessary.

Some hospitals in Los Angeles County have a dangerously short supply of oxygen, a person familiar with the matter told the Times.

Oxygen is important for treating severe COVID-19 patients who have begun to choke because the virus has inflamed the lungs. As a result, hospitals now require 10 times more oxygen than before. There was a time when oxygen stores were dangerously low before the hospital got additional supplies, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hospitals are also lacking other important supplies, such as special plastic tubing used to carry oxygen to the lungs.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County scientists have begun testing samples of coronavirus from local patients to determine if new, potentially more contagious strains have arrived that are circulating in the United Kingdom. Some officials believe it is likely to be in the midst of a massive surge in infection.

Officials said the variant was a concern because the virus could be more susceptible to human-to-human transmission. However, when a person is infected with the virus, the variant does not appear to increase the chances of the person dying.

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