The
number of coronavirus cases in California has topped 1.2 million; leaving the
state's hospitals near a breaking point. There are projections that the state
could run out of intensive care beds before Christmas. And Gov. Gavin Newsom says he's
considering another statewide stay at home order to
stop the surge. Central California's San Joaquin Valley is under particular
strain. With a spike in COVID-19 infections; the region's hospitals are
suffering from a staffing shortage. It's only made worse because hundreds of
local health care workers are quarantined. And many other places around the
state and country are also seeing peaking caseloads and can't send more medical
staff to help; says Dan Lynch; director of emergency medical services for
Fresno County. ‘We just don't have someone to reach out to help at this time;
which is concerning because we haven't been through something like this;’ Lynch
says. Until a vaccine arrives and the caseload goes down; ‘I think our hands
will be full;’ he says. Here are excerpts of Lynch's interview with NPR's Morning Edition.
How is the ICU capacity in
Fresno now?
The hospitals are pretty full. In our
county; especially in central California here; we tend to run at a higher level
during this time of the season anyways with cold and flu symptoms that are
entering the system. And so the addition of COVID to our system just adds that
additional pressure. At this time, our hospitals are very full. And the same
thing with our ICUs. Two of our largest hospitals out of probably five
hospitals; our ICU beds are completely full. So it's really a challenge with
the hospital system now; mainly because of staffing.
Because you don't have enough doctors and nurses to help with the
surge.
Not only that; it's the fact that the
health care staff are becoming infected and also being placed out on quarantine
because they are coming in close contact with some of these individuals and
need to be quarantined. In one instance; our large hospital has over 300 health
care workers that are actually on quarantine. So it's not an issue of not
having enough beds; it's an issue of not having enough staff to staff those
beds.
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