COVID-19 overwhelming LA hospitals

Ambulances should stop taking patients to hospitals if they have virtually no chance of surviving, Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services said last week. That includes people whose heart or breathing has stopped if they cannot be resuscitated. Ambulance crews are also supposed to administer less oxygen to help with strained supplies during the pandemic.

How bad are things in California? More than 7,700 patients are in the hospital with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County. On Monday, there were a total of about 25 open ICU beds spread across 70 reporting hospitals in the county, compared to more than 250 open beds in early April. The state’s COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic started stands at 26,500, and most of the state is under a stay-at-home order. About 1 percent of California’s 40 million residents have received a COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Dr. Charles Horton answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines on The World and Everything In It podcast.