Los Angeles Records New COVID Case Every 6 Seconds As Authorities Call It A 'Human Disaster'

With an anticipated post-holiday surge in coronavirus cases seemingly under way, Los Angeles Mayor has said that the city is reporting a new case every six seconds. This even as the hospitals in the city are seeing a massive crisis.

AFP

Ambulance crews in LA County have been told not to take patients with little chance of survival to hospitals.

"Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units," County Supervisor Hilda Solis said. "Our health care workers are physically and mentally exhausted and sick." Solis called the situation a "human disaster."

Who gets to go to the hospital, who doesn't

The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency issued a memo last week to ambulance workers.

AP

"Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if] return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field," the agency said.

Agencies/In house

If the patient has no signs of breathing or a pulse, EMS will try to resuscitate the patient for at least 20 minutes, the memo said. If the patient is stabilized during that time, they would then be taken to a hospital. But if the patient is declared dead at the scene or no pulse can be restored, paramedics will not take the patient to the hospital.

AFP

"This order that was issued by the county emergency medical services really is very specific to patients who suffered from a cardiac arrest and are unable to be revived in the field," said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

"Those patients have a very low rate of survival each if they are transported to the hospital. So at this time, it is deemed to likely be futile."

Holiday season fuel spread

Mayor Garcetti has warned of a dire situation in his county, which is reporting its highest number of daily deaths since the start of the pandemic. The accelerated spread, according to Garcetti, is due to the metro area¡¯s density and the mixing of households over the holiday season.

Most notably, however, the Democratic mayor said L.A. County is seeing a troubling new trend: fatalities are rising among people with no known pre-existing conditions.

AFP via Getty

¡°92% of previous deaths were people who had an underlying condition,¡± said Garcetti, adding: ¡°That is rapidly falling.¡±

¡°What¡¯s happening in Los Angeles can and will be coming to many communities across America,¡± said Garcetti. ¡°If you get two households together for Christmas, if you went to a New Year¡¯s gathering, even if it¡¯s with people you know and love ¡­ that¡¯s when this virus exploits that weakness.¡±

Bing Guan, Reuters

30% COVID deaths occurred since Dec 1

During December, Los Angeles County doubled the total number of cases reported throughout the entire pandemic from 4,00,000 to 8,00,000. Since the start of the new year, the county has reported its third- and fifth-highest single-day totals of new cases at 19,063 and 16,603.

An analysis of Johns Hopkins University data finds that California is the state where Covid-19 is spreading the fastest on a per-person basis. ¡°This is the fastest acceleration of new cases than at any other time during the pandemic,¡± said the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

With an average of 177 a day over the past week, roughly 30% of the county¡¯s total deaths during the pandemic have occured since December 1.