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With Covid-19 hospitalizations rising, California doctor says sometimes beds only open up when patients die
By Christina Maxouris, Steve Almasy and Cheri Mossburg, CNN
Updated 0254 GMT (1054 HKT) January 1, 2021
(CNN)With the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations at an all-time high, medical facilities are having a hard time finding places to put new patients.
Doctors in Santa Clara, California, are treating some critically ill patients in the emergency room, as there's just no spots in intensive care units. "Often, the only time we can move someone is when a Covid patient dies," Dr. Marco Randazzo, an emergency room physician, said Thursday at a news conference.
Dr. Ahmad Kamal of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center said they are seeing conditions that were not normal. "We are clearly not out of the woods -- we are in the thick of the woods."
More than 21,000 Covid-19 patients are in hospital beds throughout the state, with about 4,500 of them in intensive care units.
As 2020 nears its end, the US still is setting one-day records for Covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations.
Covid-19 hospitalizations have soared in December. The US set a record Thursday for the number of patients in hospitals on a given day, at 125,379, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
As the number of hospital patients rose more than 25% this month, the average number of deaths reported each day has also climbed significantly.
More than 3,740 coronavirus deaths were reported Wednesday, the most tallied in a single day during the pandemic and the second straight day that record was set, Johns Hopkins University data show.
And the outlook is grim for January. More than 80,000 Americans could die of Covid-19 over the next three weeks, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ensemble forecast projects -- offering a stark reminder the nation is still facing challenging times.
The projection comes amid ongoing vaccine distributions -- a rollout experts say has been slower than they'd hoped. Vaccines will only make any meaningful impact once they're widely available to the public, possibly not until summertime, experts have said.
And many states are reporting alarming trends.
In Georgia, where the average number of new daily coronavirus cases is more than double what it was just six weeks ago, officials are again preparing to use Atlanta's large convention center as an overflow medical center. The Georgia World Congress Center "will begin accepting patients at the end of this week," with 60 beds available, Gov. Brian Kemp said Thursday.
Mississippi and Louisiana on Wednesday saw their highest single-day case counts.
New Orleans officials urged "extreme caution" during New Year's Eve, with indoor facilities for bars, breweries, and live adult entertainment venues closed Thursday.
In Nevada, a similar message: Gov. Steve Sisolak urged residents to avoid high-risk activities to slow the spread of the virus in the state.
"I know people want to celebrate the end of 2020, and I don't blame them. But if we don't start making smart choices at the start of 2021, we will look a lot and feel a lot more like 2020 than any of us want it to be," the governor said.
Texas reported a record number of hospitalizations for the fourth day in a row on Thursday.
California's Los Angeles County hit a grim milestone Wednesday, surpassing 10,000 total Covid-19 deaths.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Jake Tapper: "This is what we all feared."
He urged people to make their New Year's resolutions to stay home to help stop the spread of the virus.
"We are still going to have our toughest and darkest days," Garcetti said.
With Covid-19 hospitalizations rising, California doctor says sometimes beds only open up when patients die | CNN
With the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations at an all-time high, medical facilities are having a hard time finding places to put new patients.edition.cnn.com
I would say 'that's third world.' But third world does better, which cought US elite by surprise, including Bill Gates.