US sets more COVID-19 records as hospitals fill
First, Theresa Pirozzi’s 85-year-old dad got sick and was hospitalized. Days later, her mom was so weak she could barely walk. Now, instead of getting ready for Christmas, Pirozzi is anxiously awaiting updates from the hospital where both of her parents are in intensive care with COVID-19.
“I’m not putting up decorations in here. It’s just not right, right now,” Pirozzi said from her parents’ home in Oak Park, California. “I’m physically ill from worry.”
The couple is emblematic of the crisis deepening at an alarming rate in California, where hospitals are being stretched to their limits as the virus explodes across the state. Nearly 17,000 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections as of Friday, and a state model that uses current data to forecast future trends shows the number could reach an unfathomable 75,000 by mid-January.
With California’s more than 48,000 new cases leading the way, the United States as a whole added a record 249,709 new cases of COVID-19 in one day, according to Johns Hopkins University. An additional 2,814 people died nationwide, pushing the death toll to more than 313,000.
Texas, Florida, New York and Tennessee all recorded more than 10,400 new cases each. Over the past two weeks, the seven-day rolling average for new cases in the U.S. jumped to 219,324 daily from 183,787, an increase of almost 20%.
Cases were on the rise before Thanksgiving, and holiday gatherings sent them even higher. Health officials fear the increase will be compounded through Christmas and New Year’s.
While federal regulators have approved two vaccines to combat the illness and doses already have been given to thousands of people, mainly health care workers, widespread vaccinations aren’t expected before spring.
In another potential complication, England’s chief medical officer, Chris
Whitty, said Saturday the U.K. had informed the World Health Organization that officials think a new variant of the coronavirus can spread more rapidly. Britain’s health secretary said the new variant was believed to be linked to the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases in south and southeastern England.
In California, hospitals are buckling under a surge of patients and morgue space is running low. Hospitals are running out of intensive care unit beds and patients are being cared for at several overflow locations. In some places, the sick are being triaged in tents and ambulances are backing up outside emergency rooms because there is nowhere to put patients.
When Pirozzi’s father, Jerry, arrived at the Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, it was so packed with patients that he had to spend two days in the emergency room before an intensive care bed opened up, Pirozzi said.
“I’m sure that was very difficult for him, being confused, not being able to breathe, being alone,” Pirozzi said. “They’re doing the best they can, but they are just completely stressed and overworked.”
Her mother, Shirley, was taken to the same hospital four days later and was moved into a separate room, she said. The family hasn’t told Jerry Pirozzi that his wife of more than 57 years is also hospitalized, for fear that would only make him worse.