With hospitals overwhelmed, leaders plead for help

The USNS Mercy arrived in Los Angeles last May to help ease the strain on area hospitals. The ship is currently unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. (Navy photo)

DOWNEY – An effort to return a U.S. Navy hospital ship to Southern California to help overburdened hospitals failed this week after military officials said the vessel is down for repairs.

“Our healthcare system is spread thin with scarce resources such as staffing shortages, intensive care units reaching capacity, limited oxygen and equipment, and our doctors, nurses and healthcare workers being stretched to their limits as they battle the current Covid-19 surge,” Mayor Claudia M. Frometa wrote to L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

“Los Angeles County is facing the fastest acceleration of new cases and deaths than at any other time during the pandemic,” Frometa added. “It is imperative that all efforts at the federal, state and local government levels are made to bring back the USNS Mercy.”

Despite efforts from city and county leaders, however, Navy officials said the hospital ship USNS Mercy is undergoing maintenance and won’t be available for several months.

The ship was deployed to Southern California in the early months of the pandemic but is currently docked at a shipyard in Portland, Ore., where it is undergoing a “major overhaul,” Navy representatives said.

On Wednesday, Hahn asked the Department of Defense to instead send the USNS Comfort hospital ship with medical personnel to provide backup for L.A. County’s strained hospital system. The ship is currently stationed in Virginia.

“We have to plan for the very real possibility that this surge gets much worse in coming weeks and months,” Hahn said.

This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) approved a request for 500 federal medical workers to temporarily relieve hospitals.

“Our plea for help has been heard,” Hahn said. “I appreciate and support Governor Newsom and Cal OES’s request to the federal government for 500 medical personnel to help our overwhelmed hospitals.

“The situation is dire statewide, but nowhere is this help more desperately needed than here in LA County. If the federal government fulfills this request, I urge that every medical personnel that can be spared be sent to our hospitals in LA County.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dispatched a team of workers to PIH Health Hospital Downey over the weekend to help the hospital upgrade its oxygen delivery system.

PIH, however, declined the offer.

“We were contacted by the Army Corps to offer assistance with oxygen systems,” said Kevin Koga, a spokesperson for PIH Health. “We notified them we installed a new oxygen distribution system a couple of years ago and we did not have a need for assistance. Therefore, they will not be coming to our Downey hospital so that this valuable resource can be dedicated to those that need assistance.”

PIH is currently treating 172 Covid-19 patients at its Downey hospital, up from 135 on Dec. 31.

As of Wednesday, 128 Downey residents have died of Covid-19 and 12,776 have been infected.

County health officials said people are continuing to interact with others outside their households, which is spreading the virus.

“The rate of new cases this month is translating into a disastrous increase in the number of people with severe Covid-19 symptoms being sent to our local hospitals and, tragically, we are now seeing more than 200 deaths a day,” health officials said.

“People who were otherwise leading healthy, productive lives are now passing away because of a chance encounter with the Covid-19 virus. This only ends when we each make the right decisions to protect each other.”

Testing results are available for nearly 4,850,000 people with 17% of people testing positive.

On Nov. 1, the test positivity rate was 3.8%. Wednesday’s test positivity rate increased to 21.8%.

“This is very significant because it means one in five people who are tested are carrying the Covid-19 virus and can expose others to this disease,” officials said.

The county received 166,300 Moderna doses as of Monday, of which 31,915 have been administered to staff and residents at skilled nursing facilities to EMTs and paramedics, and to healthcare workers in clinics.

This includes healthcare workers at urgent care and primary care clinics, at intermediate and home healthcare facilities and services, as well as healthcare field workers who face a high risk of exposure.