Hospitals in the South Bay continue to be overwhelmed with the growing number of patients infected by COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, the two biggest hospitals in the region have declared that it is getting really bad inside the facilities, using the term "internal disasters" to describe the worsened condition of the medical centers at this time.
Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder says that their emergency department had up to 73 patients by Tuesday afternoon, which has filled up the center's 24 emergency beds and another 23 beds in the parking lot operating inside tents.
The situation has evolved so hectic that hallways in the emergency room are being used to set up additional beds for incoming patients.
Also in the South Bay, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center is experiencing similar concerns on the issue as of Tuesday by also declaring the status of internal disaster.
Sharp is the largest medical center in the South Bay, and it had up to 30 of their 48 emergency room beds occupied by sick patients that are waiting to be treated to the main facility, which currently is full. As of last night, up to 116 of the hospital's 349 beds were taken by patients battling COVID-19 at a life-threatening level.
Just one week after the state of California had reached the 6 million case mark, California is now at 7 million positive cases statewide.
On Tuesday, county chief medical officer Dr. Eric McDonald said that duty officials are working on reducing the disastrous conditions that are overwhelming both South Bay hospitals.
“They work closely with leaders at the various hospitals to shift the work around as best we can to make sure that the system is taking care of everybody,” Dr. McDonald stated.
This comes as the demand for emergency services in hospitals across the country continue to increase, which in many cases has caused a delay in medical assistance during the on-going pandemic.
