Many areas are even worse off: One in 10 Americans — across a large swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest — lives in an area where intensive care beds are either completely full, or fewer than 5% of beds are available. In California, where a shortage of hospital beds triggered a lockdown in much of the state by Monday, hospital workers are bracing for the next few months. At the University of California San Diego Medical Centre, just nine intensive care beds were unoccupied Monday. For months, health workers have watched much of the public ignore their advice to take precautions and avoid the spread of the virus, he said. “A lot of health care workers have been concerned about this, about the lack of compliance, and now we’re seeing it play out, and you just sort of feel resigned,” he said.

Source: bd News24 December 10, 2020 03:00 UTC