Story at a glance
- At least 100 Air Force medical servicemembers have been deployed to work in afflicted California hospitals.
- The rise in coronavirus patients has kept beds occupied with limited staff available.
Active duty members of the U.S. Air Force are being deployed to California as the state struggles with its coronavirus outbreak.
The Los Angeles Times writes that 100 health care specialists, including doctors, nurses and other frontline medical workers, arrived on Friday to five hospitals suffering staffing deficits.
A military spokesperson confirmed to The L.A. Times that another 60 will be issued in the current week.
Some of the hospitals receiving the extra support include Adventist Health Lodi Memorial in Lodi, Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, Dameron Hospital in Stockton, Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, per the spokesperson.
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Local hospital staff who are now working with the servicemembers welcomed their assistance.
“We weren’t expecting a team like this,” Alan E. Williamson, chief medical officer at Eisenhower Medical Center, told reporters. “They’ve been great to work with. They’re very can-do. They said, ‘Just tell us what you need us to do and we’ll figure out how to do it.’”
Williamson said that his team requested additional staff from local public health departments. From the Air Force deployment, his hospital received 21 airmen total, including three doctors, 12 nurses, three respiratory therapists, two liaison officers and a physician assistant.
The team has been assigned to Eisenhower for 30 days.
More teams are reportedly “still being formed and will be deployed to COVID-19 hot spots throughout the state including Imperial County,” according to Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, per an email to The Times.
Col. Martin O’Donnell, a U.S. Army North spokesperson, reportedly confirmed that California is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine how to allocate Army resources to different areas based on need.
New coronavirus cases in California have been rising since the end of May and beginning of June, despite the state having previously controlled excess transmission of the virus.
The California Department of Health reports that statewide, approximately 6,921 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, with 1,943 in intensive care units. Available beds have been steadily keeping up with the flow of new hospital admissions, but staffing them has been a challenge.
The L.A. Times reports that, according to some officials, hospital staffing — not bed capacity — has been the largest hurdle for hospitals as they try to increase operations to treat more patients.
The surge in cases has overwhelmingly been based out of the Southern region of the state, with Los Angeles County reporting the highest number of positive patients, followed by Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.
Farther inland, Imperial County has also struggled to taper the emerging case volume. Other states along the Sun Belt, or the strip of the U.S. that sees more sunlight and warmer temperatures year round, are experiencing similar outbreaks, namely Texas, Arizona, and Florida.
Growing cases have prompted the California Public Health Director Sonia Angell to reimplement a stay-at-home mandate, ordering communal spaces like bars — both indoor and outdoor — gyms, places of worship and salons to be closed.
As of July 20, California reports 391,538 confirmed cases, along with 7,694 fatalities.
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