Amid coronavirus surge, California faces tough 2 weeks ahead - Los Angeles Times

The Navy’s Mercy hospital ship arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday to assist with the expected surge in patients stricken by the coronavirus.

The ship, which has a capacity of 1,000 beds, will house patients who do not have COVID-19 in an attempt to free up regional hospital beds for those who do. Some patients who are already hospitalized in Los Angeles County will be transferred to the ship for ongoing treatment, port officials said Thursday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that the state had asked the Department of Defense to deploy the Navy’s Mercy, as well as two mobile hospitals, to California, as the state looked to expand its cache of hospital beds by roughly 20,000 to deal with the expected surge in patients.

That came as officials were faced with a major jump in both coronavirus deaths and cases in California over the last two days and warned of significantly worsening conditions over the coming weeks.

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The number of coronavirus cases in California topped 4,000, but that number is expected to skyrocket as testing expands. Eighty-three people have died.

Confirmed cases in Los Angeles County rose by more than 50% in a single day, reaching 1,200. Nine new deaths were reported in the county, bringing the virus’s toll to 21.

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The Manhattan Beach Pier is locked, and a city sign explains why in three repeated messages: “Lot closed,” “COVID-19” and “Social Distancing.”   (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

2/19

Juan Diaz Jr., a life long Los Angeles Dodgers fan, says a prayer, hoping for the season to start by May, in front of Dodger Stadium on what would have been opening day.  (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

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Haley, CEO and Founder, of Love My Neighbor Foundation, right, dances with Crystal Armster, 51, while she and her colleagues continue to feed the homeless in skid row in these days of coronavirus in Los Angeles.  (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

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A passenger wears a mask on a Merto bus during a coronavirus outbreak in downtown Los Angeles.   (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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Members of the Los Angeles Fire Dept. wear protective gear while handing out kits to people to swab the inside of their mouths to test for the coronavirus, inside a parking lot on Stadium Way, near Dodger Stadium.   (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

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Dede Oneal gives a “V” for victory sign while waiting in a line of cars to receive a test for COVID-19 at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles.  (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

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A man with a protective mask walks by a closed restaurant along Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles.   (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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Aerial view of an empty Westfield Topanga mall parking lot, as new regulations have closed all indoor shopping centers in Canoga Park.  (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

9/19

Artist Corie Mattie paints a mural that says :"Cancel Plans Not Humaity” on the side of a pop-up store as a man takes a picture in West Hollywood.  (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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Medical Assistant Phlebotomist Zoila Villalta works with Rosie Boston, 32, from Glendale who is donating blood for her first time at the American Red Cross blood drive held at L.A. Care Health Plan in downtown Los Angeles.  (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

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A bus plies a route on the empty streets of downtown Los Angeles.  (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

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The lights are on but the Santa Monica Pier is closed to the public.  (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

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A couple wait for a bus outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.  (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

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With all Los Angeles schools closed until further notice, LAUSD busses sit idle in a district transportation yard in Gardena.  (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

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A lone traveler makes his way to catch a flight through in a sparse Tom Bradley International Terminal.  (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

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Chandly Burres looks for items on the sidewalk as fewer people than usual are on the Venice Boardwalk Monday morning in light of the coronavirus.  (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

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Denise Young, right, looks on as her daughter, Allison, 9, a 4th grader at EARThS (Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences) Magnet School in Newbury Park, receives a Chromebook.  (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

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Hollywood Blvd. is devoid of the usual crowds as most shops are shuttered.  (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

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Michael Ray, 11, plays with a ball before a movie at the Paramount Drive-In.  (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

Of the people in Los Angeles County who tested positive, 253 — or roughly 1 in 5 — were hospitalized at some point, said Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

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If each person who has tested positive for the virus infected two others, Ferrer said, “within a few weeks, there could be over a million people that would be infected in L.A. County.” Los Angeles officials have ordered all those who have tested positive for COVID-19 to self-isolate, along with those in close contact with the infected.

“These are not numbers, these are neighbors,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “There is no projection in which a couple weeks from now, we’re doing fine. This will be tough.”

Garcetti and other officials said the next few weeks are going to be challenging.

“A week or two from now, we will have images like we’re seeing in New York here in Los Angeles.”

New York, the national epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, has had 385 deaths, more than four times as many as California. Hospitals there need thousands more ventilators to keep the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients breathing.

Silicon Valley could see a coronavirus-related death toll of 2,000 to 16,000 by the end of May, depending on how seriously people take the order to stay at home, according to projections presented at a San Jose City Council meeting this week.

The thinking behind the rough estimates illustrates why health and elected officials across California have sounded the alarm about the exponential rise in coronavirus cases reported since the beginning of March. Multiple officials in the state, including San Francisco’s director of public health, Dr. Grant Colfax, have warned about a surge in gravely ill coronavirus patients needing hospitalization in the next week or two.

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“Even in the best-case scenario, we were looking at the order — in the next 12 weeks — of 2,000 potential deaths directly from COVID-19,” San Jose Deputy City Manager Kip Harkness said Tuesday of an estimate of the projected death toll for Santa Clara County, California’s sixth most populous county.

Harkness emphasized the projections he presented are rough and the county is working on a more detailed and robust estimate. “But given the urgency of the situation, we have decided to share [these] preliminary results with you and the public today, in order to derive the action that is needed to save lives.”

Nicholas Jewell, a biostatistics researcher at UC Berkeley who has been tracking the pandemic, said COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout the U.S., at a rate quicker than or on par with countries hit the hardest.

While California continues to try to gain a clear picture of the outbreak, Jewell said, the expected surge does not mean physical distancing and shelter-in-place orders aren’t working. There is still hope that the aggressive social distancing restrictions imposed across the state could make a difference.

“We knew going in we will not see any impact of shelter in place for at least two to three weeks,” he said. “We have to be patient at this point and stay the course.”

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2020-03-27 14:09:01Z
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