Though coronavirus hospitalizations are stabilizing in parts of California, patients are still overwhelming hospitals in a large swath of the state, leading California Gov. Gavin Newsom to warn that the state must brace for the effect of a surge on top of a surge from recent holiday travel.
Intensive care units in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley have no capacity remaining, according to state figures.
Over the weekend, most Los Angeles County hospitals reached a crisis point where they had to divert ambulances because they didn t have beds available.
The Los Angeles Timesreports that Sunday night was the breaking point for hospitals like USC Medical Center, where at least 30 patients could not get beds for intensive or intermediate care, and the hospitals was forced to turn away all ambulance traffic for 12 hours.
