Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rose on Monday, Jan. 17 to a mark not seen since early February, as the omicron variant of the coronavirus continued its relentless toll on the population.
And with the rise, so came more staggering daily case totals and continued strain on weary medical staffs as the county remained clearly in the thick of the latest winter surge. Those staffs, too, much like many in the population, are bracing for a world in which coronavirus could be here to stay.
As of Monday, 4,564 people in L.A. County were hospitalized with the disease, an increase of 57 from Sunday, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard. The last time hospitalizations were this high locally was in early February of 2021, when the region was coming down from the worst surge of the epidemic. That’s when hospitalizations hit peaks of more than 8,000 in early January.
Intensive Care Unit beds were also filled at their highest point since February 2021. As of Monday, 621 people were hospitalized in ICU’s, a measure of the severity of the illness of those patients. In February 2021, ICU capacity were in the 600s. In January, ICU volume reached more than 1,700.
You could hear the impact of the virus in the weariness of Dr. Thomas Yadegar’s voice. Fresh off treating patients Monday morning, Yadegar — director of hospitalist services, pulmonary medicine department and intensive care unit at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center — just came off an unprecedented week. The staff at his private practice went from 7 to 1, as COVID-19 forced nearly the entire team to call in sick. Thankfully, some were coming back this week. And that was already on top of challenging staffing conditions at the hospital itself.
“I’m a little exhausted,” said Yadegar. “I’m ready for this winter surge to be over.”
There’s only so many patient phone calls one physician can take amid a pandemic while still tending to hospital rounds. Staff members are vital — and practices and hospitals everywhere just don’t have enough of them as they call in sick themselves as the toll of the omicron variant mounts.
The county’s Public Health Department posted 27 new deaths and 31,576 new COVID-19 cases.
If there was any silver lining, it was that the numbers were less than the tallies from throughout last week, with case loads over 40,000 and daily death tolls trending as high as 66.
Monday’s numbers, however, likely reflect delays in reporting over the weekend.
“Our hearts and prayers are with all those mourning the loss of their loved ones from COVID,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health, who has had to repeat variations of that phrase just about every day for the last two years in her public statements and updates.
To date, 2,289,045 cases have been confirmed in the county. More than 10,664,000 individuals have been tested for the virus, with 20% of people testing positive to date, according to the county.
Many experts believe the omicron outbreak will soon reach its peak and begin to fall. Officials are hoping the region will see a decline similar to what cities on the East Coast appear to be seeing.
But L.A. County, according to the data, appears to still be right in the thick of it, and the number of deaths — a lagging indicator — reflect that. On Jan. 10, the county reported a daily toll of 13 deaths. The next day, 15. But then the trend of daily confirmed deaths was steep — 39, 45, 48, 66 and 53 on Sunday.
“As deaths often lag behind surges in cases and hospitalizations, sadly, the increase in deaths does not come as a surprise and tragically, we are prepared for even higher number of deaths in the coming weeks,” Ferrer said Saturday. “With unvaccinated individuals 22 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to those fully vaccinated, residents should not delay getting vaccinated and boosted as these measures are saving lives.”
Health officials are urging residents to avoid going to emergency rooms unless absolutely necessary, and to not go to an emergency room to get tested for COVID.
“A lot of the public comes to the ER because they want a COVID test, but people need to remember an emergency department is just that: it’s just for emergencies,” said Jodi Hein, chief nursing officer at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.
Many coronavirus patients entered the hospital for other reasons and only discovered they had COVID after a mandated test, but the surging numbers are putting a strain on hospitals nonetheless, with many nurses and other staffers unavailable themselves due to the pandemic.
“We’re doing the best we can. We’re hanging in there. But we certainly don’t have enough staff right now,” said Jodi Hein, chief nursing officer at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. “It is affecting all of our departments, not just nursing.”
Indeed. The hospital has had to postpone elective surgeries and its emergency rooms are full.
At present, there are about 100 COVID-19 patients at the hospital, she said. And while that number is not as high as it was in winter 2021, by the end of last week, the hospital was faced with about 160 caregivers out — about 90 of whom are nurses. It doesn’t make it easier that all hospitals are trying to hire a finite pool of traveling nurses to fill the gap.
Medical staffers are taking some solace that the testing positivity rate in the county has ticked down slightly. It could be a sign that the surge’s end is within sight, officials hope. Scientists say that the surge could wane as quickly as it climbed because it could run out of of people to infect.
Medical professionals and public health experts continued to push for the public to get vaccinated.
Hein said that of the 100 patients at Holy Cross, about 70% are unvaccinated.
“I just wish more people would get vaccinated,” Hein said. “That is the problem. That’s who is being admitted. It’s very sad to see people jeopardize their health. I know people have their reasons, and I’ve learned not to question it. I can only quote what the science telling us. We’re just trying …. .”
While many workers and students took the day off Monday, because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Hein, Yagedar and many healthcare leaders and professionals found themselves working — often double-duty to bolster their already thin staffs.
And the holiday did not pass unnoticed by the county’s public health officials — who amid the COVID crisis found a parallel with the meanings of the holiday.
“As Rev. King memorably said, ‘Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death.’ Tragically, we have seen this play out in real life and very clearly over the past two years with the disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color,” Ferrer said in a statement accompanying her daily update.
She added: “While these conditions predate the pandemic, without deliberate collective actions to address the root causes of health inequities, we are unlikely to close the gaps we have documented for two long years.”
City News Service contributed to this story.
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